


Friendship Games

by WhiteBAG



Category: Milo Murphy's Law
Genre: Action/Adventure, Anxiety, Art, Awkwardness, Badass, Best Friends, Blood, Butterfly Effect, Canon Related, Character Development, Character Study, Chekhov's Gun, Confessions, Crushes, Crying, Death, Depression, Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, Enemies to Friends, F/M, Feelings, Foreshadowing, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Gen, Happy Ending, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Illustrations, Kissing, Love, M/M, Misunderstandings, Optimism, Platonic Relationships, Plot, Plot Twists, Post-Canon, Post-Season/Series, Protectiveness, Supernatural Elements, Team, Team Bonding, Teamwork, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-23
Updated: 2019-06-20
Packaged: 2020-03-13 07:28:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 42,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18936226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhiteBAG/pseuds/WhiteBAG
Summary: Milo and his friends enter the Friendship Games. Dakota and Cavendish time travel to fight the monster.





	1. Deciding

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this story to give myself a closure after the second season of the series ended. It is pretty much a compilation of everything that I wanted to happen in the show that I didn't got. For the purposes of the story I came up with a villain. He's not at all complex but he fulfills his role for this story's sake.
> 
> Because of the time travel subplot's nature, I cannot talk more without giving away the important stuff. I hope you will enjoy this story! I tried to make it as satisfying as I could.

The day they announced the Friendship Games was a busy one for Milo. Nothing he couldn't handle of course - just things going wrong left and right, like the door that didn't want to open, or the hallways being filled with students, making it almost impossible to pass, just the usual stuff. There was no way those inconvienieces could ever bring him down.

What actually bothered him was the fact that because of Murphy's law, he was forced to miss the principal Milder's official announcement about the big event. Everyone around was talking about it and he felt kind of left out.

"Hey, Melissa?" he asked during lunch in the cafeteria. "So... what's the deal with the Friendship Games?"

"Oh, right, you weren't there!" Melissa slapped her forehead. "It's a contest."

"That I figured." Milo smirked.

"It's this new big thing that is supposed to define which school has the best set of students." Zack joined in. "But instead of skill, they measure time in which the students are able to overcome the obstacles."

"Yeah, and the shorter time each team gets the better." Melissa ended.

"Ah, so there are teams?" Milo asked.

"Yes, everyone can sign up for the competition as long as they come in the group of six, counting three boys and three girls in each team."

"All schools from the entire Tri-State area are participating." Zack nodded. "There will be twelve events and the team with the best time wins."

"Interesting... So they want to determine which school is the best at teaching teamwork?"

"Probably, yeah." Melissa shrugged. "I guess the name of the competition had to came from something."

Milo thought about it for a moment. He wasn't a very competitive person but he knew for a fact that Melissa was. He knew her for years, and his instincts were telling him that she would love to participate. But he also knew that she would never enter something called "Friendship Games" without him. Perhaps it would be fun to enter the competition, just to see how much time it would take them to get through every event.

"Do you think we should sign up?" he asked.

"Totally." Melissa grinned.

"Normally I would argue that Murphy's law would be an obstacle..." Zack said. "But we already faced time travel and aliens so... This competition honestly seems like a piece of cake."

"Yeah, to be honest, we have a pretty high chances of winning!" Melissa agreed. "Let's do it!"

"We only have half a team though." Milo noticed. "Do you... do you think that Amanda would want to join us?"

He thought about Amanda's pretty, round face and he could not hide a blush.

"We can ask her after lunch." Melissa smiled.

* * *

They found Amanda next to her locker. She was talking with her best friend, Lydia. They both seemed pretty excited. Milo took a deep breath before he walked up to them.

"Hi, Amanda!" he waved his hand.

"Oh! Hi, Milo!" she smiled.

Their relationship greatly improved over the last few months. At the beginning of the year she would probably try to find an excuse to not talk to him. Milo was glad those days were behind them but he still felt a little nervous around his crush. He didn't want to ruin anything by accident. He really liked Amanda a lot.

"We were just wondering..." he said. "Maybe you would like to join our team?"

"Are you going to participate in the Friendship Games?" Amanda's eyes went wide. She could barely hide the excitement.

"Um... yes."

"Oh, that's fantastic! I would love to join your team, Milo! But I already told Lydia that we will enter the competition together."

"Hi there!" Lydia waved. Milo, Melissa and Zack waved her back.

"Is it okay if Lydia joins the team too?" Amanda asked.

"Oh yeah, totally!" Milo smiled.

"Welcome on the team, Lydia!" Zack grinned.

"Nice!" Lydia gave him a high-five. "I am SO excited!"

"Yeah, but we are still one member short." Melissa noticed.

"Maybe Mort would like to join us?" Zack suggested.

"Well, I don't see why not." Amanda shrugged.

"I'm going to ask him!" Milo volunteered. "You guys wait here, I'll be right back!"

He ran through the hallway. It didn't take him too long to find Mort. He was chatting with Chad, right outside the school.

"Hi, Mort!" Milo tried to catch his breath. "Me and my friends are going to participate in the Friendship Games! Do you want to join our team?"

"Oh." Mort looked slightly embarassed. "Oh no, Milo, I'm so sorry. I was sure you already have a full team."

"Me and Mort just decided we're gonna enter the competition together" Chad added. "And we were about to ask Joni if she would join us too so... Sorry."

"Ah, it's okay." Milo tried to not look too disappointed. He shrugged. "I am sure we can find someone else. I wish you guys luck!"

"Likewise!" Mort smiled. Milo turned away and ran back inside the building.

Before he managed to return to his friends, Melissa noticed him approaching. She looked at his face and she immedietely knew to expect the bad news.

"So?" she asked. "Any luck?"

"Murphy's law." he smiled apologetically. "He's already in the Chad's team."

"Curses! So what now?"

"There's one more person we wanted to ask for help." Lydia suggested, looking at Amanda. "We should ask Bradley."

"Bradley?" Zack asked. "I don't know..."

"Why not?" Melissa raised her eyebrows. "Bradley can be a team player. Remember when he helped us making that short film, even though he really didn't have to?"

"It's not about that-"

"Me, Melissa and Bradley were in one team once." Lydia added. "You remember, right? You guys had to take our place because we broke like, every single bone." she snorted. "I've spent a lot of time with him in one room and he's really not so bad once you get to know him."

"Listen, I don't doubt he's a team player but he was never in the same team with Milo before." Zack looked at all his friends' faces. "Seriously, am I the only sane man here? Have none of you noticed that he has a beef with him? Can we please stop dancing around it? Like, do you really believe that Bradley would even want to join us?"

"We will never know if we don't ask him." Melissa answered. "But you are right. I don't think he ever liked Milo. And even if he does agree to join, he could cause... problems. I think... I think it should be Milo's decision. Milo?" she looked into her best friend's eyes. "Do you want to ask Bradley to join our team?"

"Sure, let's do it!" Milo grinned. They had nothing to lose.

* * *

Bradley chuckled and fixed the glasses on his nose.

"And now..." he said. "That the world is on fire and the Murphy's law is at your door, you have the audacity to come to me for help."

"Great googly moogly." Melissa rolled her eyes. "Bradley, are you in or not?"

Bradley looked at each of their faces. Annoyed Melissa, doubting Zack, grinning Lydia, Amanda smiling encouragingly and Milo's face expressing... hope? Bradley sighed loudly and heavily. He was not stoked about working with him but so far this was the only group who even considered having him on the team. Even Mort didn't ask him, and there was no way he would beg anyone for charity, even Mort. Bradley wanted to be the part of this competition but he was running out of options. Not that he would ever admit it.

"Fine." he finally answered, crossing his arms and looking to the side. "I'll do it. Since you asked so nicely."

"Nice!" Melissa smirked and turned to Milo and Zack. "We have the whole team now! We should go to the principal Milder and sign up!"

"Yes, let's do that." Milo nodded before he turned to the newest team member. "Hey, Bradley?"

Bradley didn't move nor looked at him but he cleared his throat to let him know that he's listening.

"Thanks." Milo smiled.

"Pshh, whatever." Bradley slouched and started walking away. "See you tomorrow, losers."

* * *

Dakota was running up the stairs. He just overheard something that could turn out to be game-changing for both him and Cavendish. He had to share the news with him as fast as possible.

His partner was waiting for him outside the subway entrance.

"So? Where are your pistachios?" Cavendish asked angrily as Dakota was catching his breath. "You said you want me to wait here so you can go down there, where Brick and Savannah are, on their pistachio duty, buy some pistachios and come back. Have you seriously forgotten about the one thing you told me you're about to do?"

"There's a monster." Dakota wheezed, then started laughing. Cavendish waited, trying to be patient. "I overheard Brick and Savannah talking about the monster. I didn't... I didn't even managed to walk over to them, they were just talking... And I overheard it... And I didn't even buy anything, I came back to tell you what they were talking about."

"Please, start making sense."

Dakota took a deep breath, straightened his back and started explaining.

"Brick and Savannah, who still are in touch with the future, were talking about something they have just learnt. They got some info that the new past event was just discovered. The details are unclear because of some interference but apparently two heroes saved the timeline from a monster from another dimension. Right now the agency is looking for those heroes to thank them for saving the world."

"So?"

"Cavendish... what if WE are those two heroes?"

Dakota waited as Cavendish was trying to figure out the implication of what he just said.

"We... don't have a time vehicle." Cavendish shook his head.

"But Brick and Savannah dooo."

"They will never let us borrow it."

"They don't have to knooow."

Cavendish bit his lip. Dakota was grinning at him.

"Why do YOU want to do this anyway?" Cavendish asked carefully. "I thought you are done being a hero."

"Do you really think I'm doing this for myself?" Dakota snickered. "You've been so miserable for far too long. I'm done seeing you like this. Do you want to be recognized as a hero or not?"

Cavendish hesitated for a short moment. Aw, what the heck, he went rogue once, he can do it again!

"Let's do this." he finally said, determined.

They found Brick and Savannah's time vehicle, hidden behind the nearest building.

"I can't believe they managed to keep the limousine." Dakota shook his head in disbelief.

"So how do we do this? Do you have any tools that would help us break in?"

"Sure." he picked up a rock from the ground and smashed it hard into the window. A large crack appeared in the glass' surface. The alarm went off.

"Oh for the love of-"

"Stop complaining, it's working." he hit the window with the rock again.

"If we're doing it this way, let's at least do it right." Cavendish grabbed another rock, smashed it into the window as hard as he could and the glass shattered. Dakota quickly reached his hand inside and opened the door.

"I'm driving!"

Cavendish jumped onto the passenger seat. Dakota checked the sun visor for the spare car keys.

"Bingo." he said and started the engine, stopping the alarm. "Now let's get out of here before Brick and Savannah find us here."

"Why would they keep the car keys in the sun visor anyway?" Cavendish mumbled when Dakota stepped on the gas pedal. "Who does that, really-"

ZAP!

Both of them blinked a couple of times before they got used to what they were seeing. The time stream was shifting in purple and green hues, as always. And the good old clocks were scattered everywhere, just as they remembered it.

"We're really doing this again, aren't we?" Cavendish whispered.

"Woohoo!" Dakota drummed his fingers on the wheel. "Time travel is back, baby!"


	2. Personal

"So what exactly are we competing in?" Milo asked.

"They won't tell us." Melissa answered. "It's a surprise, that's the whole point. They will throw us into the situation we don't expect to see how fast we can get out of it with our teamwork."

"Oh I see." Milo nodded. "I'm not gonna lie, I am kind of surprised that principal Milder allowed me to participate."

He and his team were following Mr. Drako, who was leading them through the hallway, moving on his hoverboard.

"The Friendship Games are a little bit different than the usual competitions held by this school." Drako answered, speaking with his Eastern European accent. "There will be no big audience, nor the equipment to destroy. At least not during the first events. The first events are as easy as turning into a bat!"

"Um-" Zack started.

"Ah, we're here!" Mr. Drako exclaimed.

He opened and entered an empty classroom. Milo, Melissa, Zack, Amanda, Bradley and Lydia followed him inside. All desks and chairs have been removed to make more room.

"I am here to measure your time." said Drako, pulling out a stopwatch. "Your task for the first event is to create a human knot."

"Oooh, I know this game!" Lydia clapped her hands.

"Please, stand in a circle, shoulder to shoulder, facing inside... Yeah just like that." Mr. Drako nodded.

Milo found himself between Lydia on his left and Bradley on his right. Amanda was on the other side of Bradley. Next to her was Melissa. And finally, Zack was standing between her and Lydia.

"Now, extend your arm and grab a hand of someone else."

Melissa and Milo grabbed each other. Bradley looked away.

"Look, I know that my arm is a plant." he was trying to keep his voice calm but they could tell that he's feeling angry and uncomfortable. "Someone just grab it. And move on."

"I will do it!" Lydia said happily. "Oh my gosh! It's like touching a tree! Do you feel me holding you? How is it to have a plant arm?"

"Well..." Bradley looked at her, completely red in the face, but Mr. Drako interrupted him before he was able to answer.

"Now, repeat this with your other arm!"

Bradley didn't wait this time - he immediately grabbed Melissa's free hand. He wasn't looking at her face but he felt her squeezing his hand back. Luckily, Bradley was already blushing so she probably didn't notice how happy this gesture made him.

"Make sure you all hold hands with two different people." Mr. Drako said. "Done? Okay. The objective of the game is to untangle everyone forming the human knot without releasing hands. If the chain breaks, you will have to repeat the exercise but that will cost you time. Ready? GO!"

No one moved.

"So..." Zack snickered. "Does anybody know how to do this?"

Milo was holding Melissa's arm in his right hand and Zack's arm in his left. He hoped he could hold Amanda's hand but he didn't have a chance to reach her in time because she grabbed onto Lydia and Zack first. Oh well. Murphy's law.

"This is such a mess..." Amanda sighed. "Give me a minute."

"We don't have a minute, we are being timed at the very moment." Bradley reminded her.

"Let me try something..." Zack started moving his arms and turning around, dragging Amanda's hand over Melissa's head.

"I think it's working!" Milo noticed after Amanda carried over her second arm too.

"Lydia?" Bradley asked. "Hold tight, I'm gonna move my plant hand over Melissa's head as well."

"Yeah, why don't you all do it." Melissa laughed.

"Almost there!" Milo grinned just before his best friend found herself between him and Bradley.

Melissa turned around. Bradley could feel her hand slipping so he squeezed it, making sure they won't break the circle.

"Wait..." Milo said. "Did we do it already?"

"We did it!" Zack exclaimed.

"Alright!" Mr. Drako saved their time on the writing pad. "It took you one minute and four seconds to untie yourselves. That's a pretty good time!"

"So what now?" Amanda asked.

"Now you go home."

"Really?" Zack raised his eyebrows. "That was it?"

"Well, I have to go and watch over a couple of other teams. But I understand why you'd be surprised. Those events aren't very long, especially when the participants communicate well. This is also why there's no audience. Can you imagine all of those people coming only to see something that lasts five minutes or less?"

"So... when can we expect the next event to take place?" Melissa asked.

"This Wednesday. Don't forget! If you don't show up, I will have to disqualify you."

"We won't forget." Milo promised. "See you then, Mr. Drako!"

"Goodbye, children!" he waved and left the classroom on his hoverboard.

"Nice job, everyone!" Milo grinned, looking at his team.

"We actually had a pretty good time." Amanda smiled. "I think there's a real chance of us winning!"

"I think what matters the most is that we had a great time together!" Milo said.

"Actually, I'm gonna agree with Amanda." Bradley answered. "I want to win."

"I think both of those things are important." Melissa shrugged. "Winning would be nice, sure. But we should have fun while getting there."

"Yeah, exactly!" Zack walked up to her to put a hand on her shoulder. He took it off shortly after they glanced at each other awkwardly. "I think we should all get some pizza! The first event is behind us, I think that's a pretty good reason to celebrate!"

"Yesss, pizza is such a good idea!" Lydia closed her eyes, already imagining her favorite pizza toppings. "Let's go!"

One after another they were leaving the classroom when suddenly Melissa noticed that someone has stayed behind. She turned around.

"Bradley?" she smiled gently. "Are you coming?"

Bradley was standing there, in the center of the room, holding his plant arm in his left hand, lost in thoughts. He flinched when he realized that Melissa was looking at him.

"Well..."

"Come on, Bradley... Think of the pizza..."

"No... No, I think I'm gonna pass. You see, I am ready to stick around for the good of the team." he walked passed her. "But there's no way I am staying anywhere near Milo after the event's over."

She watched him go in the opposite direction than the rest of her friends.

"...See you tomorrow, Melissa."

"Right." she answered, quietly. "See you."

* * *

ZAP!

It was late at night. The limousine appeared on the parking lot, nearby their apartament. They sat in a complete silence for a while. Dakota had his fingers on the wheel, clenching them so hard, his knuckles turned pale. Finally, without a word, he left the car and slammed the door behind him, making the remaining glass fall on the ground. He then walked up the stairs and disappeared in the apartament.

Cavendish pulled out the cassette tape recorder.

"Cavendish's log, entry number three." he said, his voice shaking a little. "We went back in time to... gather our thoughts and... get ready for the next task. Agents Brick and Savannah are probably looking for us so we can't stay here for long. We're jut here to get some food and such and... yeah."

He stopped recording and left the car. Without any hurry he climbed the stairs and entered their little apartament. Dakota was already packing food but he didn't say a word when Cavendish silently closed the door behind him.

"Oh, I don't know, Dakota." he sighed. "Maybe this wasn't a good plan after all."

Dakota didn't stop what he was doing, he didn't even looked at his partner.

"You know..." Cavendish continued. "We can still call this off. We can just... let Brick and Savannah handle this. Or anyone else, really. I know you thought it would be us but... it doesn't have to be us."

"Cavendish." Dakota finally stopped packing and straightened his back. He was facing the wall and Cavendish couldn't see his face. "I think you're forgetting something really important. This monster is after Milo Murphy and his friends." he took off his glasses and finally turned around. Cavendish gulped. There was fire in his friend's eyes that he has never seen before. "This just became personal."


	3. Scavenger Hunt

On Wednesday they got to play another team-building game. They had to quickly sort themselves by height, then by age, then by how many times they had broken a bone (of course Milo was at the beginning of that particular list) and so on and so on.

It was pretty fun (Amanda was especially fond of this exercise) and it allowed them to learn something new about each other, but on Friday they were supposed to go to the forest for the next challenge and Melissa had a feeling that it was going to be the scavenger hunt.

On Friday, after the classes ended, the universe proved her right. This was exciting because it meant that this event was going to last longer than five minutes.

Mr. Drako took all teams to the forest. It wasn't sunny but he still wore his umbrella hat, "just in case". They stopped walking after they got to the forest entrance - a glade with benches scattered around. Mr. Drako started instructing the first team after asking everyone else to wait for their turn.

Melissa, Zack, Milo and Amanda managed to sit on one bench together. Lydia stood behind them, supporting her elbows on the backrest and Bradley was leaning on a tree, in a safe distance. Mort and Chad's team who went first, came back after a while and immediately another group ran into the forest. Amanda gestured at the boys so they would come closer.

"How did it go?" she asked quietly.

"Sorry, Amanda." Mort smiled. "We promised Mr. Drako to not spoil anything."

"But we ran into some... unexpected obstacles." Chad added. "You see, there's the mothman in this forest."

"It wasn't- ...Eh." Mort rolled his eyes. "Two bullies decided to ruin everybody's fun. You guys better watch out there."

"Thanks for the warning." Milo said.

"It WAS the mothman!" Chad insisted as they started to walk away.

"Bullies." Mort answered.

The bullies, huh? Melissa never had any problem with them. They had a problem with HER. And hey, even if it was the mothman, he will have the problem with her as well, not the other way around. She looked at her friends but they didn't seem as confident.

"Shouldn't we... tell Mr. Drako about the bullies?" Amanda asked.

"And lost the advantage?" Melissa answered. "No way."

"What advantage?" Zack raised his eyebrows. "The bullies will be after us too!"

"But only we know about them being out there. We are ready for them."

"We are?" Milo asked, unsure.

"What if that's actually the mothman?" Lydia chuckled.

"Mothman, bullies, whatever!" Melissa rolled her eyes. "I can fight them. Don't worry, guys. You are safe with me."

She tried to theatrically stretch on the bench to show them how relaxed she was but because she didn't have enough room, she lost her balance and fell on the ground. There was a short silence before they all started laughing. Zack offered her a hand up from the ground. As she was standing up, she peeked at Bradley to see what he was doing. He was still far away, folding his arms, looking directly at her. He realized she caught him staring so he smoothly rolled his eyes and looked away.

Melissa sat back on the bench right next to Zack. They tried to not look at each other.

Something happened between them, not so long ago, that made hanging out together a little bit... awkward. It was a touchy subject that she would prefer not to think about right now.

She tried to focus her thoughts on something else. Anything else. Uhh... Bench! She fell from the bench. Was it Murphy's law? Who knows. Murphy's law was pretty unpredictable. Not that she was afraid of it. How could she? She was Milo's best friend for years.

Melissa considered herself as Milo's protector as well, in a way. She was ready to defend him always, standing up to everyone, even the adults. It was also the reason why the bullies rarely picked up on Milo - they knew not to start anything, or they would earn a solid punch from his best friend.

There was one exception though. One person who openly disliked Milo, that she has never hit before. She was on friendly terms with that person, even.

Melissa turned her head around. Bradley continued to stare at something in the distance. Standing under the tree, all alone.

"Hey, Bradley!" she called out to him. "Are you sure you don't want to join us?"

He looked at her as if he was surprised she was talking to him.

"Why don't YOU get over here where it's safe?" he asked. "You know, in the Milo-free zone."

"Bradley..." she sighed and rolled her eyes. "You're the worst."

"Okay."

"I'm sorry, Milo." Melissa leaned forward to look at her best friend.

"It's fine." he shrugged. He really couldn't care less about what Bradley thought of him.

Soon Mr. Drako called their team over. It was their turn.

"As you probably have guessed this event won't be very long as I have to time every single group here." he said. "Nevertheless, it's longer than the first two events. Here's what you have to do. You have to go into the forest, find the hidden thing and come back here to tell me what it was. Just tell me, don't bring it here because I will have to go and hide it again for the other groups. Please don't touch any clues and don't spoil anything for the other teams. Ready? Set... Go!"

Milo and his team ran deeper into the forest. They noticed the arrows made of small branches, laying on the ground. They followed them until they saw two guys, running away from something.

"Could they be...?" Zack started.

"The bullies." Melissa grinned.

She prepared her fists and stepped forward. The boys stopped, staring at her with wide eyes. Both of them started screaming, they then ditched the path whatsoever and ran through the bushes, towards the road.

"Wow, you were not kidding." said Milo impressed. "We really were ready for them!"

"I don't... understand." Melissa looked at her fists. "Is something wrong with how I look? Do I have something on my face?"

"Nope." Amanda answered.

"They looked like they were running away from something." Lydia noticed. "Maybe it is the mothman after all."

"Ahem." Bradley cleared his throat. "We're losing time."

"Right!" Melissa snapped herself out of it. "Let's get going."

They soon came across a fork in the road. Every path was decorated by a different arrow. The one on the left was made of pine cons, the middle one was made of small branches and the right one was drawn in the ground.

"I am surprised that no one destroyed those clues to gain the advantage." Zack noticed.

"Oh, it's because Mr. Drako asks everone nicely not to do that and everyone likes Mr. Drako." Melissa smiled.

"We should split up." Amanda decided, her organising instincts taking over. "This way we'll finish this event faster. Bradley, you come with me. Zack and Lydia, go to the left. Melissa and Milo go to the right. We will meet in this spot after we find out what awaits us at the end of each road. Let's get moving!"

Milo and Melissa ran to the right, following the arrows on the ground. Soon they encountered a horizontal line, seperating the path from the clearing. Here, on the ground they found numbers written in the ground. Sadly, the mothman was nowhere to be seen. Kinda disappointing, really.

"What is this?" Melissa asked, watching out not to step on any of the numbers.

"I'm not sure. Let's count them!"

"One, two, three... Twelve."

"I see twelve also. Do you think that's all there is?"

"Do you want me to check if there's nothing else, hidden in the bushes?"

Milo glanced at the bushes, thinking about it.

"...No. Let's go back. I think this is what Mr. Drako wanted us to find. We shouldn't waste time."

And so they ran back to meet with the rest of the team.

"Hey, so, what did you guys find?" Melissa asked.

"You know, it's weird." Zack answered. "We got to the clearing. And the only thing present there was a circle made of pine cones."

"That's strange." Amanda agreed. "We also didn't find anything special. Just a big arrow made of branches, in the center of another clearing."

"And we found some numbers, written on the ground." Milo ended. "Twelve, to be exact."

"Ah, that's clever." Bradley said. "The answer reveales itself only after the group compares the notes. Think about it. What do you get after you add those three things together? The answer is the clock."

"Oh, that IS clever!" Melissa grinned.

"But what if the answer is more complicated than that?" Milo thought about it. "What if the answer is... time? Since you know, we're being timed?"

"Time is definietly more creative answer." Lydia agreed.

"Time is also something we're LOSING right now!" Bradley reminded.

"Right, let's go!" Milo decided.

Soon they managed to get out of the forest, running straight to Mr. Drako.

"Welcome back, children. So what did you find?"

"The answer is time!" Melissa wheezed.

A proud smile appeared on Mr. Drako's face.

"Finally, someone solved my riddle correctly. People usually say they found the clock. I still accept that answer but, you know. You children will get some bonus points for the creativity."

"Nice!" Milo grinned. "Nice job, team!"

"Another event ended succesfully!" Zack gave him a high-five. "And hey! We survived the first week!"

They all started cheering. Only after a while Melissa realized that Bradley is no longer with them. She looked around, and finally noticed him walking home, far away from the team already. He didn't even say goodbye this time. Oh well. If he doesn't want to be a part of this group, that's his business.

"Seriously though." Melissa said. "How did Chad manage to mistake two bullies for the mothman is beyond me."

* * *

ZAP!

They appeared right in the middle of their small apartament. The living room seemed so incredibly grounded in reality, it gave them a wonderful sense of safety that they both desperately needed right now. Dakota still had his arm wrapped around Cavendish's shoulder. Milo's baseball bat fell out from his hand and rolled on the floor. It was nighttime.

"Seriously, how did you do that? That was incredible!" Cavendish exclaimed. "That stunt of yours must have taken hours!"

Dakota started slipping away and Cavendish had to grab and hold him tight so he wouldn't fall on the floor. He was unconscious.

Cavendish sighed heavily, put his partner in bed, then sat on a chair, taking deep breaths. He was tired as well, though probably not as much as his friend. He pulled out the recorder.

"Cavendish's log, entry number six..." he said quietly. "Our plan didn't quite work out... so... we're back at home. We know it's probably not wise to stay here any longer but we both desperately need some sleep and we have no else where to go anyway. Dakota..." he looked at his partner's sleeping face. It was tense as if he was having nightmares. He couldn't rest even during sleep, huh? "Dakota did something incredibly brave today. Without him we... both of us would be dead, without a doubt. ...I honestly don't know how he does it. He seems as if he didn't care about anything in the world, everyday it's just fun and games with this guy. But when he sees someone in danger he never hesitates to rush into action and do the right thing. He is ready to do... literally anything. He would sacrifice his own life over and over again just to save that other person. I don't understand it... and maybe I never will. But I am so proud to call him my friend. And If I'm being honest... After everything we've been through I even started to feel... Well..." Cavendish looked at the ceiling, not saying anything for a while. The seconds were passing, then minutes. "Nevermind, actually. I just wonder if the feeling's mutual, is all."

He stopped the recording.


	4. Jeopardy

Dakota slowly opened his eyes.

"Cavendish?" was the first thing that came out of his mouth. His voice was hoarse and his throat hurt. He started coughing. His earlier stunt really did a number on him.

"You're awake!" his partner came into his view, his face full of relief. "How... how are you feeling?"

"Water..." he managed to groan.

"Water, right!" Cavendish quickly walked to the sink and came back with a full glass.

He handed it to him. Dakota drank it all in one go.

"We can't stay here." he said, handing over the glass. "Brick and Savannah probably know that it was us who stole their time vehicle. And the limousine isn't exactly the type of car you simply miss when you see it on the parking lot. Not to mention everyone can steal it, now that the window is broken. Come on, it's dangerous to stay here. We have to go."

"But... where are we going?"

"They will never find us in the time stream." Dakota tried to stand up but his legs were too weak and they couldn't support him. He fell right into Cavendish's arms but he continued talking as if nothing happened. "We can travel from one point in time to another, stopping only to get some fuel."

Now that his face was up close, Cavendish noticed something new - a grey streak decorated Dakota's hair now. It must have appeared over night, due to all the stress he was under. Cavendish's heart almost broke.

"You are still exhausted. You need more rest."

"I will rest in the limo." leaning on his friend, Dakota picked up Milo's baseball bat from the floor. "Come on, let's go."

* * *

On Monday Mr. Drako ordered them to sit around the round table. After their hands got tied together by wrists they had to build a lego structure. It was fun. Zack wished they would do it again. Once he realized the next event is some kind of a quiz show, he got nervous. He wasn't sure if he was good at this kind of stuff.

It's not that he was afraid he knew too little trivia. He actually knew a lot about all kinds of stuff. But he wasn't sure if he wanted his friends to know that he knows them. And of course there was also another problem - what if he actually doesn't know the answer to something that he SHOULD know? He didn't want his friends to think he's some kind of fraud or something. He didn't want to let them down. But of course, maybe he was just overthinking it a little.

On Wednesday their team met with Mr. Drako outside the school, on a platform that has been constructed specifically for the event. Each of them stood behind one of six buttons placed on the platform. Mr. Drako was standing next to a big screen, clearly visible from where they were standing. This time a small audience of students showed up. Zack gulped. So now there was a chance of him failing his friends in front of other people. Great.

He thought that maybe he should tell his friends about his anxiety but... he didn't want to bother them right before the competition. Especially since he was in the boy band once so the audience like this shouldn't be a problem for him. This is fine. He can deal with it.

"Here are the rules." Mr. Drako said. "You're going to have to answer thirty questions. There are six categories, five questions each. You have the unlimited time to do this task, except for when you hit the button. After you push it, you get twenty seconds to give the correct answer and you're teammates are not allowed to help you anymore. The catch is that each of you can answer only five questions, no more, no less. You have to communicate before deciding which one of you is going to push the button. Answering wrong will cost you points (but don't worry, the questions are easy). Here are the categories."

The list appeared on the big screen behind him: band names, martial arts, movies, space, time travel and world of colors.

"The computer will be randomly choosing the questions for you. Remember that the goal is to answer all of those questions as fast as possible. Ready... set... go!"

"I think we all should pick one category and answer all of the questions from that category." Amanda said immediately. "It's the fatest way. I'm choosing the world of colors."

"Oooh, can I pick time travel?" Milo almost jumped from the excitement.

"Go for it." Melissa smiled. "I'm gonna go with the martial arts."

"I can take the movies category." Lydia said. "Unless you guys want it."

"Nah, I will take the band names category." Zack answered. He didn't want to flex but music was kinda his thing.

"And I prefer the space one anyway." Bradley added.

As they were talking, Amanda already pressed her button, because the computer chose a question from the world of colors category. The question was: "Red in French."

"Rogue!" she answered, proud of herself.

Her button turned green and the computer chose the next question, this time from the time travel category. "Doctor Zone is a titular character from the famous TV show revolving around time travel. Who is the creator of that the show?"

"Orton Mahlson!" Milo exclaimed, pressing the button. Oh, he's gonna ace those questions!

The movies category showed up with the next question: "I'll be back" is a famous quote from the movie...?"

"The Terminator!" Lydia smiled, pressing her button. Amanda was right, this way they were going through those questions pretty fast. The audience seemed pleased as well.

Now the martial arts category showed up. Zack didn't even manage to read the question this time, Melissa was already pushing her button.

"Taekwondo." she answered without any hesitation.

Zack showed her thumbs up. She smiled back but then she immediately looked away. Zack sighed.

Something happened between them, not so long ago, that made hanging out together a little bit awkward. It was a touchy subject that he would prefer to not think about right now.

He tried to focus his thoughts on something else. Anything else.

This time the computer chose something from the band names category. Zack, being lost in thoughts, hit the button, before reading the question. He looked at the board and... "A popular New Wave band from the 1980s, known for their hit single What Do It Do?" Oh no. Was it... Was it Zanzibar? He really wasn't sure if that was the correct answer. But the entire audience was staring at him and the time was running out.

"It IS Zanzibar, don't worry." said a tiny voice, at the back of his head. He decided to trust it.

"Zanzibar." he said out loud and held his breath. Turned out it was the correct answer after all - his button turned green. He breathed, heavily. That was a close one!

Next was the space category. "A chunk of rock from outer space that burns up in the atmosphere." Bradley pressed the button.

"A meteor." he answered, kinda bored.

World of colors. "Black in Japanese."

"Kuro." Amanda answered, proud of herself.

The movies category appeared now. "A popular action movie franchise, starring Tobias Trollhammer." Lydia was about to press the button when she heard the loudest of gasps. She looked to her right.

"Milo? Do you... wish to take this one?"

"Oh, are you sure? Can I really?" he asked, making big eyes.

"Yes, if that makes you happy."

"Thank you!" he hit the button. "Krillhunter!" he yelled, overexcited.

It was, of course, the right answer. The computer was on the time travel category now. "The name of the classic movie involving time travel, directed by Robert Zemeckis."

"Oh gosh!" Lydia smiled. "Milo? Can I take this one?"

"Of course, it's only fair."

Lydia pressed the button.

"Back to the Future!" she grinned.

Zack was getting nervous. What if the band names category pops up again and he won't know the correct answer? Last time he almost blew it. His insecurities were starting to take over him. As if something was devouring him from inside out. But what if... Well... Lydia and Milo traded questions. What if he just does the same?

The movies category showed up. "A four-part movie series, featuring a creepy girl with oily hair falling on her face."

"Oh, I know this one!" Zack pressed the button before Lydia could. "The Grievance!"

"Oh, you wanted to- Okay." Lydia said quietly.

Melissa peeked at Zack but no one commented on what just happened.

The space category was next. "What is the name of the galaxy that contains Earth?"

"The Milky Way Galaxy!" Zack pressed the button. He was sweating.

"Hmm..." Bradley commented.

"Zack? Is everything okay?" Lydia asked.

"Zack, what the heck?" Melissa whispered at the same time. "Stop stealing questions!"

But before she could say something else, she had to focus because the martial art category appeared on screen again. She didn't manage to finish reading the question.

"Kung fu!" Zack yelled, his voice high pitched.

"ZACK!" Melissa shouted angrily. "I'm sure I knew this one! You didn't even let me read it! Focus on your own category!"

"Boy, this is a debacle." Bradley mumbled and glared at Milo. "I wonder who's fault is that."

The world of colors category. "Yellow in Spanish." Oh, Zack knew this one! But Amanda was faster. She smashed her button, looking him in the eyes.

"No te atrevas, Underwood." she hissed. "That category is mine! The answer is amarillo!"

The time travel category. "Something that occurs when an object or piece of information sent back in time becomes trapped within an infinite cause-effect loop in which the item no longer has a discernible point of origin." Zack blinked. He didn't know this one. But Milo did. After his adventures with Cavendish and Dakota he decided to educate himself more on the subject. And he saw that one particular peach with his own eyes.

"Bootstrap paradox!" he said, pressing the button.

The band names category was up next. "The all-female pop rock band. Its most notable members are Crash, Tink and Missy." Oh. This one was easy, actually.

"The Bettys." Zack said, feeling kind of stupid. His button went from green to gray and only now he realized he was already out of questions. Well, at least there was no way he could fail now. It was over for him. Somehow that realization didn't make him feel better at all.

The screen was displaying another question already. "White in Polish."

"Biały!" Amanda pressed the button.

"How do you even know this stuff?" Zack whispered.

"I like colors a lot, don't judge me." she huffed.

The next few questions went smoothly. The martial arts category showed up. "Translates to "gentle way". It was originally created in 1882 by Jigoro Kano."

"Judo." Melissa answered.

The movies category. "The name of the special effects artist who worked on Space Adventure and Stumbleberry Finkbat."

"Clive Addison." Lydia said, pressing the button.

The world of colors category. "Purple in Hawaiian."

"Poni." Amanda said. "There. I'm done. I'm out of questions."

The band names appeared and Zack suddenly felt sick. He knew this one. "A one-hit wonder from the 80s. Worked with the record company Huge-O-Records on the album popularized by its catchy tune and light, meaningless lyrics."

"Guys." Melissa said quietly. "I can't take any band questions, I don't feel very well educated on the subject and I'm afraid I'm gonna answer wrong."

"I can take it." Milo offered.

"Absolutely not." Amanda shook her head, stopping him from pressing the button. "Only you can take on those time travel questions, Milo. You gotta focus on them."

"I'll take it. You can take my space questions instead, Melissa." Bradley suggested and pressed the button. "The answer is Lindana."

They stormed through another couple of questions. Karate, The Mummy and Comets were all valid answers, provided by Melissa, Lydia and Bradley respectively. Then, the time travel category showed up again. "In chaos theory, it is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state." All of them, except Milo, widened their eyes. The what and what now?

"The butterfly effect" Milo answered with ease. Everyone stared at him, impressed. Thank god they had him on this team.

"Um, Mr. Drako?" Amanda called out. "I though those questions were meant to be easy!"

"Oh." their teacher seemed genuinely surprised. "You children don't know the chaos theory?"

After another question from the martial arts category (to which Melissa provided the correct answer "Jujitsu"), the space category showed up. "These are a cooler, dark areas on the sun’s surface. Every 11 years, the sun seems to have a major breakout."

"Melissa, those are all yours." Bradley said. "I only have one question left and there are still two questions from the band names category left."

"Sunspot." Melissa pressed the button.

The time travel category: "A time loop named after a movie in which the main character relives the same day over and over again."

"Groundhog Day Loop." Milo answered. His button greyed out. "That was my last question."

The band names category showed up. "Jaret Reddick is the lead singer of this pop-punk/punk-rock band." Melissa, Bradley and Lydia looked at each other.

"I think I can take it..." said Lydia, pressing the button, with a shaky hand. He hesitated. "Um... Bowling for soup?"

It was the correct answer. She sighed with a relief. The space category showed up. "This is the second largest and lightest planet in the solar system. It's so light that its density would allow it to float on water."

"Saturn." Melissa answered.

The last question, from the band names category. "A popular rock band known for such hits as "You Snuck Your Way Right Into My Heart"

"Love Handel." Bradley answered.

And just like that, it was all over. The audience was cheering because they actually managed to get a pretty solid score. They all sighed heavily and stepped from the stage to make room for another team.

"What a rush!" Milo exclaimed.

"Nice job with those space questions, Melissa." said Bradley.

"The future journalist/queen of the universe must know her kingdom."

"The what now?" he snorted.

"Hey, Zack?" Milo asked. "Is everything okay?"

They all turned around to look at him. Zack was staring at his shoes and he flinched when he realized he's in the center of attention.

"It is, Milo, I just... I wanted to apologize." he said. "I feel like I really messed up there. I just... I panicked."

"It's okay, Zack. Don't be sorry." Milo put a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah, stage anxiety happens to the best of us." Lydia agreed. "And they didn't even warn us there's gonna be an audience."

"Yeah, but... I took your question without asking and then I got so carried away... This could have ended way worse and I'm sorry. I'm just... I am just glad it all worked out in the end, honestly."

"Yeah, it did, you dork!" Melissa smiled and punched him in the arm.

"Ouch!" Zack looked at her, furrowing his eyebrows. Maybe it was his lingering emotions taking over, maybe it was something else. But he felt like something within him just snapped. "Could you stop that?"

"Stop what?"

"Punching me! It really hurts sometimes, you know?"

"It's how I express my emotions, I can't help it." she punched him again.

"Stop that!"

"Um, guys?" Milo started.

"Also, why should I stop? I told you earlier to stop stealing questions and you didn't." Melissa continued.

"This is different!" Zack's voice became squeaky as always when he was getting nervous. "Besides, I apologized!"

"Can we just decide it was all Murphy's law's fault and move on?" Bradley asked.

"Don't get involved, Bradley, this is not about you!" Melissa growled.

"Obviously." he huffed. "It never is."

"Why are you so angry with me?" Zack asked.

"Why are YOU so angry with ME? Ever since we came back from space you started acting so... weird! You never complained about the punching before!"

"Well, I'm doing it now! It hurts everytime and I want you to stop!"

"Guys..." Milo said quietly.

"But why now?" she punched his arm again. "What exactly changed, Zack? I am so TIRED that you never tell anyone about how you feel. Because you still expect people to just KNOW! But they don't, obviously! You always keep everything a secret and then you turn it all in a way that makes the other people feel bad for being angry at you, even though they didn't do anything wrong!"

"Oh, look who's talking!" Zack grimaced, finally deciding to fight back. "Little Miss Mixed-Signals!"

"Ohhh, I get it now! You're angry about that kiss I gave you, aren't you!" another punch.

"I never said that!"

"Wait!" Bradley screamed. "You kissed him?!"

What happened next was very quick and irreversible.

"I told you..." Melissa raised her fist. "...to..." she turned around. "...stay OUT OF IT!"

A perfectly measured punch landed on Bradley's face, sending him a few steps back and on the ground.

It got very, very quiet.

Melissa stayed frozen in place with her fist still in the air, as Bradley raised himself on his elbows and slowly touched his cheek. When he looked at Melissa, his already wet eyes were full of shock.

"Bradley, wait..." Melissa started but Bradley quickly got on his feet and started running away, tripping.

"You were right!" Zack exclaimed. "This really is how you express emotion!"

"Zack, no wait..." Melissa turned around, but Zack was already storming away in the opposite direction.

Melissa glanced at concerned Amanda, Lydia who was covering her mouth with her hands and finally Milo. Milo's reaction to all of this was probably the worst - his big eyes were full of fear. Melissa slowly shook her head, took a step back and ran away as well.

Another moment of silence passed, before Amanda decided to break it.

"Okay... I was right there watching it happen but I still don't know what happened."

Lydia kept covering her mouth with her hands. Milo looked at his feet.

"Me neither." he said, quietly.

* * *

On Thursday Melissa, Zack and Bradley not only stopped talking to each other - they were avoiding each member of their group as much as it was possible.

"I am starting to worry about the future of this team." Milo confessed, standing with Lydia and Amanda next to her locker. "What if tomorrow one of them just... doesn't show up? Without the full team we will be disqualified from the Friendship Games. But what's more important... I'm worried that there's not any friendship left at ALL anymore!"

"I can talk with Bradley." Amanda offered.

"And I can talk with Zack." Lydia added.

"I will talk with Melissa, then."

Milo did as he promised. Or at least, he tried to. Melissa refused when he offered to walk her home, and she wasn't aswering her phone later that day. She only sent him one text:

"Milo, I really appreciate your concern and I'm sorry but... I want to be alone right now."

Milo bit his lip. Maybe he shouldn't push. Maybe he should gave her some space, at least for now.

"Please tell me if you're gonna show up for the tomorrow's event." he wrote her back.

He got an answer, almost immediately:

"I will be there for you, Milo."

* * *

On Friday they had to face the good old obstacle course. Milo was standing outside the school, waiting for his team to show up. A couple of dark clouds were covering the sky. A bad weather for the obstacle course. That's probably the Murphy's law's fault.

Lydia appeared first.

"Any words from Zack?" Milo asked her nervously.

"I talked with him." she smiled. "He feels very ashamed about what happened. He will come."

"Oh, good." Milo sighed with relief.

They didn't have to wait for him for too long. As soon as Zack appeared, Milo ran straight to him, to welcome him with a big hug.

"Whoa, there!" Zack chuckled. "Hi there, Milo. Look, I am sorry for acting so weird and unpleasant the other day. I promise this won't happen again."

"You didn't do anything wrong, Zack." Milo answered. "You really don't have to apologize for having feelings."

Amanda appeared next. Her face didn't reveal any emotion.

"Any words from Bradley?" Milo asked, letting Zack go, but staying close to him as if he was worrying about him disappearing or something.

"He wasn't responding my phone calls so I left him a series of messages about how much we need him on this team."

"And?"

"He only sent me back this one text." Amanda pulled out her phone to show Milo what Bradley wrote.

The message said "She hates me, bro" with the crying emoji at the end.

"So, honestly, I have no idea." Amanda put the phone back to her pocket.

"Hi, guys." they heard Melissa's sheepish voice.

Milo ran to give her the big hug as well. Amanda and Lydia waved.

"Hi." Zack said.

He and Melissa glanced at each other for a second, before breaking the eye contact. They didn't say anything more. Milo looked at them, getting nervous again. Seriously? That was it?

As Mr. Drako was calling their team over, Bradley finally decided to show up.

"You're here!" Milo exclaimed with surprise and relief.

Bradley wasn't looking at him or anybody else.

"Some people on this team don't deserve to lose by walkover." he said, quietly. "I'm here for them."

They all proceeded to get on the starting line. Then Mr. Drako ordered them to run and so they ran. A few obstacles got destroyed by the falling tree and other crazy Murphy's law shenanigans but even though the team managed to overcome the entire course, none of them seemed to really enjoy it.

After they finished, Zack, Melissa and Bradley walked away in different directions. Nobody said anything. Milo was looking at his best friends leaving. Even after they finally disappeared out of sight, he continued to stare.

"We didn't even last two weeks." Milo muttered. It started raining.

"Lydia?" Amanda asked. "Could you fetch us some umbrellas, please?"

"On it." Lydia ran off.

Amanda hesitated, biting her lip, then placed a hand on Milo's shoulder.

"The weekend is starting." she said. "I think this is a good time to give them all some space. We can... get together with Lydia and watch a movie or something... if you want. Or... Or we can meet without Lydia, really, it's all up to you."

"Hm." Milo answered, still looking into the distance.

"Listen..." her voice was calm. "They will have some time to think it all over. Don't worry, Milo. After all, everyone showed up today. It will be okay."

"I..." he gently covered her hand with his own. "I really hope you're right. It's just that... everything went wrong."

The rain was falling on both of them more and more heavily. Suddenly Amanda understood what he meant.

"Milo? This... is not your fault."

She heard him sniff. Then she felt him shake and he suddenly turned around, hiding his face in her shoulder, crying openly. Amanda gave him slow pats on his back first, before hugging him tight.

"It will be okay." she repeated.


	5. Truth Booth

On Monday they all met with Mr. Drako outside of school, next to something that looked like a metal container with six doors.

"So this is the truth booth." the teacher said.

"That sounds stupid." Bradley muttered to himself.

Milo glanced at his friends. He spent this weekend with Amanda and Lydia, mainly watching movies. Their company made him feel a little bit better, however he kind of hoped things would be back to normal by now. Everyone showed up for the event but Melissa and Zack still weren't talking to each other. Bradley seemed to the only one who returned to being his old, salty self, but he wasn't talking with the rest of the team either.

"One of the most difficult tasks you can face while working as a team is communication. "Drako kept talking. "Today you will have to get through five team-building exercises. Each of you will enter the soundproof room. Inside you will find two monitors and a button that you should press only after you finish a task..."

He kept explaining the rules but Bradley stopped listening. He couldn't really focus on what his teacher was saying. He just wanted to get this done as quickly as possible and go home.

As soon as Mr. Drako stopped talking and instructed them to go inside the truth booth, Bradley entered the second room to the right. The door behind him closed and the only source of light was a small lamp above his head and two monitors in front of him. There was also a button in front of the monitors.

One of the monitors was displaying an instruction. "Compliment the person you see on screen."

Suddenly Amanda appeared on the other monitor. Pshh. Amanda was easy.

"Hi, Amanda." Bradley started, a tiny smile forming on his lips. "I consider you a good friend and I think your choice to wear magenta every day is inspired, you look great in it."

What he said was true. He really did feel this way about her.

"Aww, thank you, Bradley." he heard her voice from the speakers. "I consider you a good friend as well. Speaking of colors, I've seen you wore a green jacket once."

"Aww... You did?"

"Yes, I think you look rather dashing in that color. It really suits you."

"Oh, thank you so very much!"

They both pushed the big button at the same time.

* * *

Milo saw Zack on his monitor.

"Oh, hi, Zack!" he smiled. "The screen here says I should complement you so let me just say, I'm really impressed and proud of you. Despite many phobias you always try to face your fears and you grow braver and braver every day! Good job!"

"Thanks, Milo. I think your outlook on life is really admirable and inspiring. It's like nothing can bring you down! You're so optimistic! And smart too, you can get out of any situation with your quick thinking. That's amazing!"

"Aww, shucks." they both pressed their buttons.

* * *

"Hi, Lydia!" Melissa said. "I think you're a great team player and a loyal friend. And I adore your fashion choices."

"Thank you, Melissa. I feel... pretty much exactly the same about you! You're fierce. And I love your hair, it's so puffy!"

"Thank you, I like your hair too. And your handband."

"Thanks!" they both pressed the button.

Lydia didn't wait long for the next task to appear on the monitor. "Reflect on one memory you both share." After a short moment she saw Bradley on screen.

"Oh, hi, Bradley. I have a memory in mind already. What is yours?"

"When we were laying in the hospital with all of our bones broken?" they both snorted.

"That was the memory I wanted to reflect on as well!"

"Even though I felt like I was dying, I'm still glad it happened at all." Bradley admitted. "I think we grew closer as friends."

"We did! But... you know what?"

"What?"

"That never would have happened if it wasn't for Murphy's law."

"Huh." Bradley thought about it for a moment. He never even considered that! And as much as that made him angry, he knew that Lydia was right.

"Okay, I'm gonna push the button now." Lydia declared. "I don't think we have to reflect for long."

"Sure, sure." Bradley did the same but none of them disappeared from the screen. "What's going on?"

"The task changes only after all teammates press their buttons. Weren't you listening to Mr. Drako?"

"Not really."

"I think someone has trouble reflecting on a memory."

"It's either that... or the Murphy's law."

They stared into nothingness for a while before Lydia broke the silence.

"Do you... want to play charades with me while we wait?"

"Sure."

* * *

Amanda smiled when Milo popped out on her screen.

"Hi, Milo!"

"Oh, hi, Amanda! On what memory do you want to reflect? You can choose."

"Can we talk about our last weekend?"

"Oh! Yeah, sure."

"I know I said that we can just watch a movie without Lydia. But I'm glad we did it with her."

"Yeah, you see, I didn't want to exclude her. I mean... I would feel terrible if you two had spend the weekend together without me. Especially after what happened."

"I didn't mean to make it sound like I don't want Lydia around. Don't get me wrong, Lydia is my bestest friend. But honestly, I was just surprised that you didn't want to..." she blushed, suddenly looking sheepish.

"What?"

"You didn't want to... turn it into a date." she blurted.

"Oh... OH!" he blushed too. He didn't even consider that! Somehow this completely went over his head.

"Maybe... next time?" Amanda asked.

"Oh, s-sure!" Milo smiled, awestruck.

They both pressed their buttons but none of them disappeared. They looked at each other a little awkwardly, still blushed.

"I wonder who's having trouble..." Milo whispered.

* * *

Melissa and Zack were looking at each other. Melissa felt as if there was a giant rock in her stomach. Zack felt his hands getting wet. He sighed heavily.

"Look, we don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." he started. "We are timed, after all."

"No." Melissa rubbed her arm. "Let's do talk about it. I think we need to."

"Okay, well... where do we start?"

"Back in space..."

"Oh no..."

"Back in space I... kissed you on the cheek. And ever since we came back, there was... this awkwardness between us. And whatever it is... I want it gone."

Melissa's face was determined. Zack closed his eyes. It seemed like it would be easier for him to bungee jump than to talk about it.

"Do you remember Jackie?" he finally asked, wincing.

Jackie? ...Jackie... Oh, Jackie! Yes, Jackie was definietly a thing that happened!

"Oh my god, I completely forgot about Jackie!" Melissa admitted. "Wait, do you still have a crush on her?"

"What? NO! Argh!" he yelled, grabbing his hair and starting to pull. "I knew you wouldn't understand!"

"Then let me understand! Why did you bring her up?"

Zack took a few deep breaths and let go of his hair.

"I brought her up as an example. She was just... one of a few. My crushes come and go." he explained sheepishly. "They disappear as suddenly as they appear. And they never last for very long. And I'm... sorry? I'm sorry because I feel like you hoped we would be a couple by now. But we're not. I was wondering why does it always happen like this. Maybe I'm just not ready to be in a relationship or maybe... You know, I even started wondering... if there's something wrong with me..."

"Oh, Zack..." Melissa put her hand on the monitor. "There is nothing wrong with you. You're a teenager, you're still figuring yourself out."

"Yeah but it's just... I felt so bad about it. I thought that, I don't know, maybe I got overconfident back there, on that alien planet. Maybe I somehow expressed myself way too much? You kissed me, Milo started making fun of me... And then after I came back to earth all those feelings disappeared. I started to worry that I might have... manipulated you? Into thinking that I want to start dating?" he took a deep breath. "This thought wouldn't let me sleep at night. So the next day I decided to act as if absolutely nothing happened between us. Even if it did. And I'm sorry. I never wanted to hurt or disappoint you."

"You didn't manipulate me, I'm... I thought I was the one manipulating you!"

"What?" he blinked, taken aback. "How?"

"I... didn't want to date you either."

"Then why'd you kissed me?"

"Because I'm a teenager too!" she threw her hands up in the air, grinning nervously. "Because I am scatterbrained! Because my best friend in the whole world was lost in SPACE and I didn't even know if he would survive that! Back at home... it's just me and my dad..." her voice started breaking and tears appeared in her eyes. "And Milo just feels... he's my family. And seeing his body floating in space..." she started openly sobbing. "I was s-so happy when we found him alive! And you were so brave! And there were aliens! A lot of things were h-happening! You were so close and I kissed you without thinking! I kissed you and t-then I realized that I might have manipulated you into t-thinking that I want to start dating! I don't, and I'm sorry!"

"Melissa- Melissa, it's okay!"

She was crying uncontrolably now. Zack thought that she probably didn't give herself a chance to cry at all since their space adventure and all those emotions finally found their way out, right here, right now. He waited for her to recompose herself, feeling very vulnerable as well. She tried to calm herself down by taking deep breathes. She finally was able to speak again but her voice was still shaky.

"I wish I could h-hug you right now." she said, smiling faintly. "You're very important to me, Zack. Just not in that way. I did think it was that way but..."

"...but we're just too different?" he finished. His eyes were wet as well but he was also smiling. "I feel the same. You're one of my bestest friends. I love hanging out with you. But I don't think... a romantic relationship would have worked out between us. Sorry." he shrugged, sheepishly. "I hope we can still be good friends after this."

"Zack, look at us." Melissa chuckled, wiping away her tears. "We are talking about emotions and stuff. Admitting our faults. Zack, we're not good friends. We are BESTIES."

The both laughed.

"I'm glad we talked." Zack sighed with a relief. "I feel much better now."

"Me too."

"I only wish we did this earlier."

"Maybe it had to happen like this."

"You mean, by you punching Bradley?"

They both snorted.

"Oh, I feel bad for laughing, I will have to apologize to him too." she sniffed. "Now, come on. We can hug after we get out of this metal can."

"Yeah, let's move on."

They both smiled at each other and pressed their buttons. Zack blinked and Bradley appeared in Melissa's place.

"Finally!" Bradley rolled his eyes, before squinting them. "Wait, are you crying?"

"No." Zack quickly wiped away tears, with a smile.

"Our next task is to play two truths one lie." Bradley said without any emotion.

"Alright then." Zack sniffed for the last time and looked at him.

They both smiled awkwardly, trying to hide the uncomfortable truth that they absolutely don't know anything about each other.

"You start." Zack decided.

"I like football. I like to sing. And I own exactly four hundred and twenty books."

"You don't like football."

"I do, actually. You guessed wrong."

"Wait, really? I... like football too."

"Yes, I know. I was there to see you play once."

"Really?" Zack scratched his head. Somehow this must have escaped him. "Huh! That's... really cool, Bradley. Wait. So which sentence was a lie?"

"Pshh." Bradley smirked. "Like I'm telling you."

"Fine, now it's my turn. I have two cats. I have ichthyophobia. And I was in a boy band."

"I don't believe you were in the boy band."

"Actually." he smirked smugly. "I was. You guessed wrong."

"Wait, really? Huh. ...What was the name of the boy band?"

"Pshh. Like I'm telling you."

"Ha. Ha." Bradley answered, completely deadpan. "Can we press the button now? It says nothing here that we have to play again even if we fail."

"Okay, I just wanted to say that... it was good to get to know you a little better." Zack pressed the button.

"Yeah, yeah, likewise-"

"Wait! You got interested in my boy band! Does it mean the sentence about you singing was true? Because if you want to join our band-"

"BYE, ZACK!" Bradley pressed the button. Zack's laughing face disappeared.

* * *

Melissa appeared on Milo's screen.

"Melissa, are you... Are you crying?"

"I was. But it's all good now. I was just... talking with Zack."

"Oh." Milo hesitated. "Are you two... good?"

"Yes. It's all good."

Milo noticed a gentle smile on her face. He calmed down.

"Alright." he smiled as well. "Here's two truths and one lie. I'm not mad at you for what happend. I was super worried about you, I didn't want you to deal with it on your own. And I was born a llama."

"You were NOT born a llama!" she exploded with laughter. "Milo! Isn't that cheating?"

"I don't understand what you mean." he grinned. "Now it's your turn."

"Alright... I said that including Bradley in our team might turn out problematic but I was the one who caused the big problem. Even if you're not mad, I still feel sorry about what happened, I didn't mean to make you feel scared or sad. And I was born a fish.

Milo felt incredibly relieved. There was progress.

* * *

"Amanda?" Lydia peeked at their new task and smirked. "That's no fun, we know everything about each other!"

"Then let's do it quickly! I bake a cupcake every morning, black is my favorite color and I have OCD."

"Black isn't your favorite color. I have a collection of creepy masks, I once ate almost a whole book and I have incredibly strong fingernails."

"You didn't eat a book. Done."

They pressed their buttons, grinning.

They still had to wait a little bit for the other members of the team, so they talked about the homework. Soon, Melissa appeared in Lydia's place. Their new task was to give their teammate a piece of constructive criticism. Both Amanda and Melissa started talking at the same time.

"Hi, Amanda. I think you should try to be less bossy."

"Hi, Melissa. I think you should try to be less manipulative."

"Wow, that was easy." Melissa smirked.

"Don't you think she should elaborate on what we just said?"

"Maybe, I don't know. What else there is to say though? You draw a valid point - I am well aware of my attemps to manipulate you in the past. Now that I look back at it, it doesn't make me feel good, but there's not much I can do about it except maybe apologizing and assuring you that I'm working on my unhealthy tendencies. So yeah, I'm sorry."

"Wow, okay. Well... I was also thinking about my tendencies. Sometimes my obsessions take over me, to the point where I order people around, deciding for them on what they should do. I am aware of my faults and your constructive criticism is valid. You have to take my word for it when I say that I'm working on myself as well."

"Cool! So... can we push the button now?"

"Sure!"

* * *

"Hi, Lydia."

"Hi, Zack. Can I give you a piece of constructive criticism first?"

"I think I know what you're gonna say. That I should be more open with my feelings and stop keeping everything a secret."

"Nah. Quite the opposite."

"Oh?"

"Sure, you should share stuff if it's something important, like, feelings. But... You're a real wild card, Zack." Lydia smiled. "There's nothing wrong with being secretive. It's quite exciting, actually. You keep trying new things but because you don't always share, you also keep surprising people. It's... really cool, honestly. You have a lot of hidden, interesting talents. Be more proud of them."

"Th-thanks." Zack blinked and smiled. "Can... Can I tell you something now?"

"Sure, let's hear it!"

"Try to be more assertive."

"That's easy enough!"

"Is it? When was the last time you said no to someone?"

Lydia took a breath, as if she was ready to answer, but she didn't. Instead, her grin started to disappear very, very slowly, as she tried to remember.

"During the quiz show I took your question and you didn't even fight back. And what about Amanda? You always do what she tells you to do."

"That's... different." Lydia wasn't looking at him. "She's... my best friend."

"Even best friends say no to each other sometimes."

Lydia opened her mouth, then closed it, looking at her feet and clenching her fists. Only now Zack understood how big of a problem that was for her.

"I know you like to act." he continued, his voice calm and gentle. "But you don't have to pretend like everything's okay all the time, at least not to your friends. Especially Amanda. If she's really your best friend, she will understand. You CAN refuse doing something for her. She might be cooler about it then you think."

Lydia kept staring at her feet. Zack sighed. He knew it was better not push.

"Look, I'm pressing my button now. We don't have to talk about it right now if you don't want to. But... just think about it. Okay?"

"Thank you, Zack." she whispered. "For constructive criticism."

She pushed her button.

* * *

Bradley stared. He was glaring at Milo and at the task he had before him and his mind was just completely empty. It's like it broke. How should he even approach this?

Milo looked to the side, smiling awkwardly.

"Look, Bradley... I know you don't like me. Whatever you say, I will accept the criticism. Even if it's not constructive. Look, I can start if that makes it easier." he cleared his throat with a smile. "People around you... are not your enemies, Bradley. I know it's hard to trust that other person sometimes. But you should start giving people a chance."

Bradley kept staring at him, now squinting his eyes.

"You know nothing about me." he finally said, folding his arms.

"You're right. So why don't you give me a chance... so I can learn?" a friendly smile decorated Milo's face. "I guess what I'm saying is... you should at least try to be a little bit more open-minded. You know. Like Melissa."

Bradley looked unimpressed. Then there was a silence, followed by an even longer, louder silence. Finally, he raised his eyebrows a little bit and said:

"You are way too nice."

"Oh, thank you."

"It wasn't a compliment, Milo." he accented his name as if it was an insult. "It was constructive criticism."

"Huh?" he blinked.

"Have you ever been angry? Have you ever been mad at someone?"

"Sure. Anger is one of the most basic emotions."

"Yeah, but I mean... you're not very agressive. You can't be nice to everyone, Milo. Not everyone is your friend. You should start standing up to yourself. Melissa can't protect you everywhere you go, you know." he looked to the side. "I guess what I'm saying is, next time someone threatens you... at least try to be a little bit more confrontational? You know. Like Melissa."

Milo thought about it, then started beaming.

"I guess we should both try to be a little bit more like Melissa."

"Yeah..."

They both stared at each other before Bradley pushed his button without breaking eye contact. Milo pushed his button too and even wider smile appeared on his face when he saw Lydia, replacing Bradley. They read their last task. "Let your partner tell you about their negative experience, then help them focus on the bright side of said situation. Afterward, switch roles."

"Oh, this is a classic team-building exercise." Lydia said. "It's called two sides of a coin. Can I... go first?"

"Sure, go for it!"

"I had a really bad food poisoning once." she seemed a little bit down. "That day I had to performan interpretive dance number on stage. I was too weak to even get up from bed but I didn't want to disappoint Zack. I think I passed out in school because I woke up in the hospital."

"That's horrible!"

"I know! I left Zack alone out there, I promised I would do this with him and I didn't!" she hid her face in her hands.

"No... Lydia... Your priorities are all messed up! You were really sick and you didn't take care of yourself. If there's a bright sight to this, it's probably the fact that you made Zack really impressed. I know him, he probably wasn't even mad at you."

"You think so?" she moved her fingers out of the way to look at him.

"Of course he wasn't, you can ask him! But Lydia, if something like this happens next time, could you please put yourself first?"

"I... I'll try." she rubbed her eyelids. "It's just... the more time I spend with Zack, the more I realize how cool he is and I feel even worse about ditching him like that back then. He helped me during the quiz show, you know?"

"He did?"

"Yeah. I... I didn't actually know the answer to that band names question." she whispered. "But then I heard him telling me the answer after I pressed the button. That was kinda against the rules but I decided to not say anything, especially since no one noticed."

"Huh." Milo rubbed his chin. "Interesting."

"But enough about this! What is your bad memory?"

"Hm... I was sure Melissa and Zack got mad at each other because of me."

"But... how?"

"Murphy's law." he shrugged.

"Oh. Oh no... Oh, Milo, I'm so sorry. But... can that even happen? Can Murphy's law destroy... relationships?"

"I mean... I don't think it ever happened before..."

"Then I don't think it was your fault. Besides, think of the good things that happened because of it. We got to spend the entire weekend together! I, uh... I was meaning to thank you for this, actually."

"For the weekend?"

"And for everything." she smiled, blushing. "For including me in this entire team. This... means a lot to me, it makes me feel like I belong. Thanks."

"My pleasure, Lydia." Milo smiled as well.

* * *

"Oh, Zack. Good." Amanda said. "I really wanted to talk with you. I wanted to apologize."

"You? To me?" Zack widened his eyes. "For what?"

"Back at the quiz show... I decided on what we should do and I expected everyone to follow my lead, without asking any of you if you're okay with my plan." she closed her eyes. "I feel partially responsible for your state that day. You were having a hard time and I acted... really rude. It was unprofessional on my part and... I just feel like a bad friend. I wanted to get through the event quickly because that was the goal but... I should have stop thinking about the score and take care of my teammates first." she opened her eyes and smiled sheepishly. "This contest is named Friendship Games after all. I'm sorry, Zack."

"It's okay, Amanda. I don't hold any grudge. Do you... do you want me to find something positive to what you're feeling?"

"Oh, no, you don't have to. I just wanted to apologize, I can share a different bad memory with you."

"No, no, it's okay, I... I kinda want to."

"Oh, well... If that's what you want to do, then go ahead."

"I never even considered this might be your fault. I think your plan was very good, actually. We saved a lot of time because of it. It was me who almost messed it all up. That's the thing, you see. I see you as one of those people who bring a lot to the table. I am sure you are partially responsible for how far we've come, because of your organising abilities. I am glad that you can see how ordering people around might be problematic, but seriously... don't beat yourself up about it. You're doing a great job."

"Thank you, Zack. Is there... anything you want to share with?"

"Yes. I'm actually glad the computer chose you for this exercise. I feel like you might be a person who can help me with this. You see, I was in space. On an alien planet. And I kicked some butts up there. Not literally. But I was very cool, you had to be there to believe me."

"Go on."

"Well, that's the thing. You had to be there to believe me. I was super brave up there but after coming back on Earth, I kinda feel like not much really has changed? I mean... I still panicked on STAGE last week. I thought that I made like, I don't know, a progress? But... I'm still afraid sometimes."

"Zack." Amanda rolled her eyes. "One has nothing to do with the other. Look... I have OCD. I have to wash my hands many times a day but in some situations... for example right now... that's just impossible. I won't fall apart over this but it doesn't mean it doesn't itch. You are braver now but it doesn't mean you won't ever be afraid anymore. Actually, being brave means you ARE afraid of doing something, and yet you still do it. Phobias won't disappear because you're braver now. And that's okay."

Zack thought about it for a moment before he smiled gently.

"Yeah. You're right. Thanks, Amanda. I knew I could count on you with this."

"No problem, Zack."

* * *

"Oh, Bradley!" finally, Melissa thought.

"Hi, Melissa. ...Were you crying too? What am I missing?"

"Nothing, nothing... Listen. I am so sorry I punched you, I didn't mean to do this, it was all instinct and no thinking. I feel super bad about it and..."

"I don't want to hear it."

She blinked.

"Wh...what?"

"Listen, I had the entire weekend to think about it. Do you know how much time that is? I had more than 48 hours to think about it and at the end of the day I came to the conclusion... that I just don't care."

"You don't... care If I apologize, or..."

"I don't care that you punched me. Clearly, I deserved it."

"No, Bradley, don't..."

"Don't interrupt me, I am talking now. Sure, I was shocked at first. But then I thought about it and I remembered that you told me to not get involved and I didn't listen. You had every right to react like this under pressure. Maybe it just... had to happen like this. And I have to admit, it actually helped me to put things into perspective. It's not like we're friends or anything, right? Then why should I be mad? You hate me because I insult your boy, like, everyday. More surprising is the fact that you never punched me up until that point. So... thanks? For finally doing that? I guess?"

Melissa couldn't help but chuckle.

"I don't hate you, Bradley."

"You don't?" his eyes went bigger. He actually looked a little bit relieved. "Well... my point still stands. Can we please move on with the last task? What's your bad memory?"

"Actually, I think we just discussed it."

"Oh."

"I still don't feel good about what I did and I want to make it up to you somehow. But I'm at least a little bit more content now that I know your point of view. So yeah. Now it's your turn to share a bad memory."

He opened his mouth, then closed it. He could choose anything. Any bad memory that was connected to him feeling jealous or invisible. Any memory of Milo and Melissa having fun and him feeling left out. But instead, he raised his right arm and pointed at it with his left hand.

"I hate this." he said.

"Your plant arm?"

"Yes. There are no bright sides to this. Good luck finding any." his tone wasn't mocking, just kind of resigned.

Melissa eyed the vine carefully.

"You are right, this sucks."

"Thanks."

"Like, I'm gonna admit, this is so unfair! Cruel, even! Everyone gets healed except you, somehow. And then no one even seemed to be concerned, they just left you to deal with this by yourself. And what would it be if I was the one who got stuck with the arm plant? Would I also receive no support at all?"

"I doubt that."

"Why?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because you have friends?"

"Yeah... yes, I do. I... kinda wished you were one of them."

"Wh- ...really?"

"Bradley, why do you think I never punched you before?"

"Oh." he blinked and for a moment they stared at each other in silence. "Well. Now I feel stupid."

"Well don't. There's a good reason you feel this way. You know what, let me prove myself to you. Let's make a deal. I WILL find the bright side of having the plant arm. It will be my way of making it up to you."

"Where's the catch?"

"There is no catch. It's just me trying to help someone I wanted to be friends with."

Bradley thought about it for a short moment and then smiled - actually, sincerely smiled.

"It's a deal, then." he pressed the button.

* * *

The six of them exited the truth booth. Milo, who was behind the first door on the left, and Lydia, who was behind the first door on the right, looked at each other and at the same time they stretched their arms and started closing the space between them, embracing all of their friends in a big group hug. Bradley shrieked, not expecting that, but there was no escape. They were all hugging now.

"I love you, guys." said Lydia.

"We probably lost our chances of winning, didn't we?" Amanda started laughing. "I don't regret any second spent in there but... our score must be terrible."

"Actually..." Mr. Drako showed up. "You children did pretty okay."

"But... it felt like we were in there for hours." Zack raised his eyebrows.

"But you still attempted every task. I had to disqualify at least half of teams today. Most of them preferred to cheat their way through rather than face their communication problems. Some where just pushing buttons without saying anything! You weren't the best this day, but you're still very high on the score board."

"How do you know that we didn't cheat?" Zack continued asking.

"There is a hidden camera in every room. We are making sure the participants are actually doing their tasks in there."

"Wait, so you know what we were talking about?" Lydia's eyes went big.

"Not really, no. We're not allowed to listen to what the participants are saying, just observe if they're doing what they're supposed to do. But I do have to admit, it looked like you were talking about some heavy stuff." he started to move away on his hoverboard. "You children have more issues than Ms. Murawski and her desk. Yeesh."

"So... We can still win this!" Milo grinned. He looked at the faces of his friends. They were beaming. "Sleepover, tonight, at my house! We HAVE to celebrate!" 

* * *

"Cavendish's log, entry number seven. I realized that I haven't make an entry for a longer time... It's been... weeks from our perspective but not much have changed in the overcoming-the-monster departament. We've been living in the limousine and... Well, the good news is that Dakota is feeling... a little better." he sighed heavily. "We've been making plans on how to defeat the monster but we always scratch it. How do you defeat someone that can't be hurt? We're starting to run out of ideas. Every plan involves a huge amount of risk and..." he took a longer pause. "We are scared. If we don't defeat the monster he will just change this timeline, he will turn it into the timeline where he wins. We can't let this happen but... We don't know what to do."

He stopped the recording. He knew that he left out a lot of important details but honestly, he was just tired, and he didn't really care. For example, he didn't mention that they couldn't destroy the monster because he had regenerative abilities. They couldn't send him to the past and wait for him to die because he seemed to be immortal - he would just wait for long enough and start again. They couldn't trap him because he could open portals to his dimension - he would just escape the trap. The whole situation was hopeless. And then there was also Dakota.

Yes, he was feeling better, but it didn't mean it was all good. Cavendish had to nurture him back to health for those last few weeks and even though Dakota started feeling better physically, his mental state seemed... well. It wasn't great, that's for sure.

At the moment he was sitting at the back of the car, under the blanket, between all kinds of notes, paper plates and futuristic gadgets, keeping Milo's baseball bat close to him. He was staring at the clocks, slowly floating outside. Cavendish climbed out from the driver compartment, slipping at the back of the car. He took a seat in front of his friend, pushing time grenades out of the way. They were experimenting with those to get slightly different effects but since they didn't really have a plan, they seemed useless.

Cavendish looked at Dakota but he didn't seem to be looking at him - it's like his sight was locked at whatever was behind his partner. As if Cavendish was invisible and Dakota could still observe the clocks behind him. They sat there in silence.

"Why do I even bother?" Dakota finally whispered.

"What do you mean?" his partner asked.

"You will never be happy."

"Excuse me?"

"I've sacrificied so much going back in time and saving you, multiple times. And even after you found out about it, you went full rogue on me. You tried to make me forget about you. Then I've found you, obviously saved again and proposed to get into this whole time travel business once more. I didn't care for it anymore. I did it all for you. To make you happy. But that plan would never work because you will never be happy." his eyes moved slightly and only now Cavendish knew that Dakota was actually looking straight at him. He continued to talk, very quietly. "Don't say it's not like that. Don't even apologize, I don't want to hear it. And I don't want to sound rude but honestly? Next time we meet the monster, I will just let him swallow me whole. It's not like anyone would care anyway."

He gazed at the window again. The lime-purple glow highlighting his grey hair streak and bags under his eyes made him look way older than he actually was. He looked beautiful. He looked so good, it was a special brand of torture looking directly at his face. Cavendish stood up and sat next to him. This way he could be closer without forcing himself to stare directly at his face.

"I know you don't want me to apologize. But I just want to say... You're right."

Dakota was so surprised by this confession, he turned his head to looked at his partner again.

"I am very bad at expressing what I'm actually feeling." Cavendish continued. "I think that I usually forget to communicate my feelings properly. But that's not an excuse. I should've try harder. You have seen me die hundreds of times. You've seen so many dead bodies in your lifetime, it's horrifying. You were depressed all this time and I did nothing about it. I'm an awful partner and even worse friend. I don't know what you see in me that is worth saving. But there's so much that is worth saving in you. You probably don't see it because you're just so... selfless. I hardly ever say it even though I should tell you this everyday... I am so incredibly proud of you. I know you had no way of knowing but you really are... the only thing that truly makes me happy."

Dakota kept looking into Cavendish's eyes. To say they were blue was an understatement. They were cyan. No one else had eyes like those. Always so bright and piercing, like electricity.

"You really don't know anything, do you?" Dakota whispered.

Cavendish stared.

"Do you remember when we destroyed Earth's second moon?"

"I don't understand how's that relevant. Besides, it's not a very happy memory."

"I would destroy the first one as well if that meant saving you."

Neither of them broke eye contact.

"But... why?" Cavendish finally asked.

"Because you are only ever motivated by your desire to save the world. You have no idea how adorable that is. It's been your biggest dream, ever since we've met. Literally nothing can stop you when you're on a mission. That focus, that... dedication to your goal, to your sense of purpose! You call me selfless? I break the rules. Do you think I cared about what would happen to Brick and Savannah when I was stealing their car? We probably doomed them to be stuck in the past this month. And not even once I thought hey, maybe that wasn't a very heroic thing to do." he was breathing heavily. "Here's the ugly truth. I am motivated only by a selfish desire to be happy. But here's the kicker, get this - I discovered that I am the most happy only when you are happy. Except (I think you know where I'm going with this) you will never be happy because we will never be heroes because there is literally no way to defeat this monster! My point is, everything is hopeless, nothing is real and we should just give up and try to enjoy simple pleasures because that's the only thing we have left, except maybe self-destruction."

He reached for a bag of crisps and he started to force them into his mouth, muttering something about human body being disguisting. Cavendish observed him, before looking at the window, to observe the clocks outside.

He then rememered who put them there and how it happened.

"Give up, huh?" he asked.

Dakota didn't answer, but he stopped eating and threw the bag away.

"Poor Milo..." Cavendish continued. "Do you really think he deserves that fate?"

Dakota's face changed. He swallowed slowly and blinked, his eyes getting bigger and his eyebrows furrowing.

"Aha!" Cavendish exclaimed, suddenly looking at him. "Gotcha. I saw that! You feel guilty now! You know that giving up means giving up on Milo and you started to feel bad for him! You DO care about the others! You said it yourself. You can't be happy until that other person is happy. How is that selfish?"

Dakota sat there in silence, before smiling gently. He closed his eyes, let out a low chuckle and shook his head.

"And you're still wondering why you're worth saving. Honestly... Sometimes I think it's the other way around. I feel like... you are saving me from myself."

"Maybe we both save each other."

They looked into each other's eyes again, smiling gently. It was comforting.

"But... what can we do?" Dakota finally broke the silence. "We tried for weeks to find the solution and didn't find anything.

"Maybe what we need is just a little bit of improvisation. You know, doing things your way. It's risky, I know, but the least we can do, is to go back to the future, to the final event of the Friendship Games and make sure the monster doesn't hurt the kids."

Cavendish was smiling with determination. A giant grin slowly appeared on Dakota's face as well.

"Or we can die trying!"

"Let's not." Cavendish stopped smiling.

But Dakota was already on his feet, jumping behind the steering wheel.

"We're coming to stop you, you monster!" he laughed. "Three times a charm, baby! Let's play some tunes!"

Cavendish heard the music coming from the front of the car.

 

_Well, it would've been, could've been_

_Worse than you would ever know, oh!_

_(The dashboard melted but we still have the radio)_

 

"Nice." Dakota stepped on the gas pedal.

 

_Oh, we talked about nothing_

_Which was more than I wanted you to know-oh-oh-oh-oh_

_Now here we go!_

 

ZAP!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song that plays at the radio is called "Dashboard" by Modest Mouse. It was one of the things that inspired me to write this fic in the first place.
> 
> Thank you for reading.


	6. Sleepover

Bradley rang the doorbell with his plant arm. His normal arm was holding a bag of things he needed for the sleepover. He couldn't believe himself. He really was doing it, wasn't he? Walking right into the lion's den.

Soon Milo opened the door. He looked pleasently surprised.

"Bradley! You're here!"

"Of course I'm here." his voice was deadpan. "Melissa would probably take my lunch money if I didn't come."

"Nah, she wouldn't do that." Milo giggled. "Come in!"

Bradley stepped inside and he was immediately welcomed by a creature with a large, round, brown nose and floppy ears. Oh my gosh, that's right, Milo had a dog!

"Diogee! You're not supposed to be jumping on my guests!"

"It's... fine." Bradley gave him a few pats on his head before Diogee ran off.

Milo led Bradley to the living room. A few big mattresses were covering almost the entire floor, along with satisfactory amount of pillows and blankets. Melissa, Zack, Amanda and Lydia were laying there, laughing and talking.

"Hey, everyone!" Milo called out to get their attention. "Bradley's here!"

"Bradley!" they all shouted at the same time.

"Were you... practicing that?" Bradley asked, weirded out.

"Nah, we're just happy you showed up." Milo answered. "We were just talking about the longest summer. Do you remember the longest summer, Bradley?"

"You mean that last summer that was way too long and yet no scientific explanation was found and no one knew what was up with that? Yes. I remember. It was rather hard to miss, if you ask me."

Bradley noticed that everyone was in their pajamas already. Okay, to be fair, he did show up pretty late to the party - he just really didn't want to come. He asked Milo where the bathroom is and he went there to change into pajama pants and a loose t-shirt.

After he came back he threw his bag at the pile of his teammates' bags and sat right next to Amanda. She almost immediately took his hand.

"Wh-what are you doing?" he hissed, trying to pull it away but her grip was strong.

"Relax, Bradley. It's just nail polish." she said.

"What?"

"Don't try to fight her." Zack warned him, showing off his fingernails painted gold. He looked fantastic. "I tried."

Bradley looked around. Everyone had their fingernails painted already.

"Oh... Okay, then." he muttered resigned, letting Amanda cover his nails with emerald polish.

He waited for her to finish, trying to listen to what the others were saying. Now he was starting to feel kind of stupid for showing up so late. He had no idea what was going on and he was embarassed to ask. Finally Amanda let him go and made an awaiting gesture as if she wanted Bradley to give her his second hand. He raised his eyebrows and without a word slapped the entire plant arm on her extended hand.

"Oh. Right. I forgot." she mumbled. "Sorry."

"Oh, Bradley, Bradley!" Lydia suddenly jumped in her seat. "Remember when I asked you about how is it to have the plant arm? No one can interrupt you now!"

"Um..." Bradley glanced at the other members of his team.

"Yeah, Bradley, we're all curious." Zack nodded.

"Just share already!" Amanda grinned.

Something in his stomach started tickling him. They were giving him ATTENTION. He... he LOVED that. A big smile appeared on his face. He really was smiling more than usual today.

"Do you want to see something creepy?" he asked.

"Sure!" Lydia beamed.

He rolled up his sleeve. They all gasped, some in shock, some in horror. Their reaction made him grin even more.

There wasn't even a line indicating where his human arm was ending and the plant arm was starting. It's like his flesh was stuck mid-transformation, slowly changing itself into a branch, texture of his skin molding into a bark. It was so bizarre that no one could look away, and Bradley was loving every second of it.

"So... do you feel it when I touch it?" Lydia poked his arm.

"Yes."

"But... does it mean you have like... bones inside of this thing?" Melissa asked.

"I hope not!" Bradley answered a little louder than intended.

They all laughed and continued to discuss it, later changing the subject, and enjoying eating homemade cookies and drinking soda. About an hour later they decided to watch a movie.

"Oh, oh!" Lydia jumped to her bag. "I brought one of my favorite movies with me!"

She pulled out a DVD box displaying a blue-haired protagonist.

"It's about this girl who discovers a different world where her mother has buttons instead of eyes, and-"

"I think..." Amanda interrupted her. "I think Milo should choose a movie. It's his sleepover party after all."

"Oh." Lydia blinked, disappointed. But then she noticed Zack, nodding and gesturing encouragingly behind her best friend's back.

Lydia took a deep breath.

"N-No." she managed to say. Amanda seemed surprised. "I... I want to see this movie. I brought it especially for the occasion. I want to watch it with you guys. It's a little creepy but I also think it's very good and I want to see your reactions to it."

"Oh." Amanda smiled. "Alright then. If you feel so strongly about it. Let's watch it! Milo?"

"Sure!"

Lydia noticed Zack silently clapping for her. She beamed.

"Creepy sounds interesting." Melissa added. "But we should make some popcorn first."

They went to the kitchen, grabbing chips from the cupboard along the way and petting Diogee who was walking between their legs. This is when Lydia pointed at the window.

"Who's this?" she asked. "He looks GOOD."

Milo turned around. Behind the window there was a man with curly, brown hair and prominent nose, wearing shades at night and a tracksuit that looked like he borrowed it from the 70s. He was grinning.

"Oh, that's my friend, Dakota!" Milo smiled.

"Is he like, your uncle?" Bradley raised one eyebrow. "A godfather? Your first cousin once removed?"

"Nah, he's just a friend."

"Really." Bradley said. "A friend. You're just a friend with this random adult."

"Oh, he's anything but random." Milo assured him and opened the sliding door.

"Milo, this is gonna sound weird but I need you and all of your friends to give me your hair." was the first thing Dakota said.

"Okay!" Lydia pulled out her one hair and gave it to him. "Here you go!"

"Wait a moment!" Bradley yelled. "What?!"

"I know this must look weird but we need it to stop the monster." Dakota tried to explain himself. "One single hair from each of you is absolutely enough."

"How can we know this man doesn't want to, I don't know, clone us?" Bradley kept asking.

"Monster? Hair?" Milo raised his eyebrows. "Dakota, what's going on?"

"Ah, I see! We're back to not paying attention to Bradley again!"

"I would prefer not to talk about it. It's... honestly pretty gruesome." Dakota answered.

"I can say anything now because no one is listening to me!" Bradley kept going, more in the background now.

"But what are our hairs for?" Milo asked.

"Oh no, my head turned into a triangle!"

"It's for the trap we're setting up. I really can't tell you details. Sorry for being so cryptic about it but... I wouldn't be asking if it wasn't important. You gotta trust me on this." Dakota smiled reassuringly.

"I'm gonna carve B+M into my plant arm as if I was getting a tattoo!"

"Alright. I trust you." Milo said, giving him one single hair from his head.

Melissa and Zack looked at each other and nodded before they did the same. Amanda needed another moment of hesitation. Bradley looked at her and sighed.

"If Amanda is doing it... so do I. But I want to get something out of this!"

"How about a bet?" Melissa smirked.

"What's on the table?"

"If Dakota really clones us, I will... Hmm... Oh, I know! I will give you one noncommittal kiss on the cheek."

"Oooh..." Milo, Zack, Amanda and Lydia teased.

Bradley's face turned red just a little bit before he raised a hand to his bangs, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Done!" he said, pulling one hair and giving it to Dakota.

When Dakota was hiding their hairs into his pocket, Milo noticed something new on his wrist.

"Hey, that's a cool watch, Dakota." he commented.

"Huh?" it took him a moment. "Ah, right, my... watch. Thanks."

"This... isn't actually a watch, is it?"

"Nah. Oh well... I guess it's time for me to..."

"Oh! Dakota, before you go, I want to give you something." Milo started pulling his arm. "You guys make some popcorn and prepare everything, it will only take a moment!"

Milo ran to his bedroom and retrieved something from his wardrobe. He then ran back, and gave his friend a gift.

"A... baseball bat?" Dakota smiled.

"For the monster!" Milo beamed. "I figured you're gonna need it more than I do. My dad found it laying somewhere in the grass, when we were on a walk during summer. We played a game or two but... you know how it is with Murphy's law. I don't think we're gonna play again anytime soon, so... I want you to have it."

"Thanks. I WILL return it." Dakota promised, taking it. "Oh, that reminds me!"

Suddenly he pulled out a big kitchen knife.

"I'd almost forgot! This belongs to your school. Me and Cavenish took it and forgot to put it back. Would you..."

"I will return it tomorrow." Milo nodded, reassuringly.

He immediately went to put the knife in his backpack so he wouldn't forget about it. Meanwhile, Dakota noticed Diogee, sniffing his leg. He leaned down to pet him.

"Hi, buddy... Who's the good boy? Well, alright." he straightened his back after Milo returned. "It was a nice breather but I really gotta go now. I need to focus, you see, Cavendish's counting on me."

Milo led him back to the kitchen, where his friends were almost done with the popcorn.

"Hey, Dakota?" Milo asked before his friend left. "Will we win the Friendship Games?"

Dakota turned around and looked at him and his friends one more time. They all looked at him as well - a group of teenagers, completely unprepared for what was going to happen. They noticed something in Dakota's eyes - a terrible secret that he didn't have a heart to reveal. But after a second or two he blinked and smiled warmly.

"You kids will do great." he said sincerely and left.

"Well, that was vague." Bradley commented after Milo closed the door.

"Popcorn's ready!" Zack exclaimed. "It's movie time!"

* * *

Bradley chose a place on the mattress between the couch and Melissa, so he could be as far away from Milo as it was possible. The movie turned out to be really good. The first half, being relatively calm, seemed to be setting up to something bigger. The second half was full of suspense, action, horror and creepy people with buttons instead of eyes.

They went to sleep shortly after the movie ended. They would love to stay awake and talk about it more, but they had school tomorrow. Bradley fell into an unpleasant dream full of crawling monsters, trying to get him. Of course his legs felt really heavy so he couldn't outrun them.

He woke up in the middle of the night. For half a second he had no idea where he was. He then realized that Diogee was sleeping on his legs. Oh, right. He was in the lion's den.

"Off." he whispered, moving his legs away. Diogee yawned and went back to sleep, this time on Zack's legs.

Bradley tried to go back to sleep but his throat was too dry. He needed a drink. He put his glasses on and blinked, trying to get used to the darkness. Before he stood up, he glanced to his right and realized that Melissa's face was right there next to him. He quickly pulled away.

The moments were passing and he still couldn't force himself to stand up, afraid his movement would wake her up. But the longer he lingered, the more his eyes were getting used to the darkness and the more clearly he could see her, which made looking away and standing up even more difficult.

Her thick, curly, ginger her were falling partially on her face. She had a small nose and pointed chin that she would stick out even further when she was angry. She was so pretty...

Of course she wasn't a type of sweet girl who would made cute faces or giggled at his every joke. No, she was the type of girl who would challenge him. She would make a bet with him and then she'd be very smug about winning, because of course she would win every single time. She would punch him in the face and he would thank her.

...Oh god, he did do that, didn't he?

Feeling like an absolute garbage, Bradley finally stood up. Hoping that he wouldn't step on any of his teammates' legs, he found his way to the kitchen.

He took a glass from the counter, poured some water and drank it. This is when he felt strange itching on his plant arm. He raised it up to the moonlight for examination. There was something resembling a small branch, sticking out towards the end of the vine. He did notice it a few days ago but every day the branch seemed to be slightly bigger. As if he was growing a thumb or something.

He tried to move it and discovered that he, in fact, can. Not feeling even a little better about it, he put the end of the vine into the glass of water, hoping the itching would stop. He stared at it, finally realizing that he doesn't feel as thirsty as before. Was he... drinking with his arm?

"I am a monster." he whispered to himself.

"Can't sleep?" he suddenly heard a voice behind him.

Bradley flinched, almost jumping out from his skin. He put the glass down and turned around. Milo was standing there, rubbing his eyelids and yawning. He had a blanket around his shoulders as if he was wearing a cape.

"Oh." Bradley took a deep breath. "It's you."

"Don't mind me, I just need some fresh air. I'm going back to sleep soon." he muttered, opened the sliding door and stepped outside.

Bradley hesitated for a moment before he chose to go after him.

"I must admit." Bradley said. "Nothing really... Bad happened today."

"Oh it did." Milo smiled. "You just didn't see it."

"Like what?"

"I didn't catch the school bus today. Almost broke a leg on my way to school. I was late for the class..." he kept going. Bradley stared at him, blinking. "...tried to buy some popcorn but they didn't have any, so I had to go to another shop, then I tripped and the crisps I bought fell into the sewers so I had to go and buy some new ones..." the list didn't seem to have an end. Bradley started to think if he should stop him. "...after the second batch of cookies caught on fire, I decided to ask my sister to bake them for me..."

"Okay, you know what, that's... enough. How do you live like this?"

"Like what?"

"You're only making your life more difficult!"

"Oh, I don't control the Murphy's law."

"Right." Bradley glanced at him skeptically. "So you're telling me you're NOT just doing that to steal the attention?"

Milo started laughing but stopped as soon as he realized his teammate was being serious.

"Bradley. Did YOU keep the plant arm on purpose to gain more attention?"

"What! No! Do you really think I would do that to myself? No one else has it, so people think I'm some kind of freak! And don't even get me started on writing! It's so hard! You really think I would do that to myself even if I could? It's not like I was given a choice, it was beyond my control!"

Milo raised his eyebrows and smiled. Bradley needed another moment to figure this out.

"...You mean like..." he squinted his eyes. "Your Murphy's law is like... my plant arm?"

"A little bit, yes."

"Huh." he thought about it for a moment, staring at his arm, then at the starry sky. Milo joined him. "My arm would be normal if not for this whole time travel business that took place some time ago. I hate time travel. I don't understand what you see in it. There was this question..." he closed his eyes, trying to remember." Something about chaos and butterflies?"

"The butterfly effect from the chaos theory?"

"Yes. Who else to know everything about chaos but you? Hmm..." he hesitated. "Would you explain what butterflies, of all creatures, have to do with all of this?"

"You want me to explain the butterfly effect in easy words?" he glanced at him, but Bradley kept staring at the sky.

"I won't ask again, Milo."

"Well..." Milo smiled, looking at the stars again. "How do I put it... Imagine a butterfly taking off. The flapping of his wings seems insignificant but what if it creates just enough air movement to influence the formation of a tornado? A very small change creates a significantly different outcome."

"You mean like... falling dominoes?"

"Well, yeah, kinda."

"Okay, I guess that's easy enough to understand. But how is time travel relevant to it?"

"Imagine you're a time traveler-"

"Can't do that."

"-and you went back in time. You have to remember that literally everything you do can (and will) affect and change the future."

"Hm, I don't know... this... seems like a huge resposibility then. Why would anyone want to become a time traveler?"

"I think it's exciting. Going back and either creating the stable time loops, or changing the timeline completely."

"Well... You prefer time, I prefer space." he clearly wanted to change the subject so he could show off too. "Did you know there's some kind of dome, encasing the entire Milky Way?"

"You're messing with me." Milo chuckled.

"No, I'm serious!" Bradley waved his hands at the sky. "It's there to prevent the further space explorarion and no one knows how to get rid of it!"

"...Huh." Milo squinted his eyes, wondering if he could see it from here. But of course, he could not.

They observed the stars in silence before Milo spoke again.

"I'm glad you're on our team, Bradley."

He snorted.

"Why?"

"Because you're honest with us. You never hesitate to tell us what's on your mind. Good thing, bad thing, it doesn't matter. You always make sure everyone around knows how you feel. I think it's important." he adjusted the blanket around his shoulders. "I feel like everyone is looking up to me. Because they know I'm good at preventing bad things from happening. But...I don't know if I am a good material for being the team leader. I am... kinda afraid of letting everyody down. And I think I really am all about avoiding confrontation, just like you said. But sometimes... what the team needs is someone to poke out what do we do wrong... so we can be better."

"Brutal honesty, huh? It does sound better than complaining."

"You're not afraid to always hurry us up before we lose time. It's a good thing to have you around, to remind us to focus. So... yeah..." Milo looked at him and smiled. "I'm glad you're on our team, Bradley."

Bradley sighed and looked at the grass.

"If I was honest, I would tell Melissa how I feel a long time ago." he muttered.

"Oh, I think she already knows."

"What!" he glanced at him furiously. "Milo, if you told her-"

"I didn't." he chuckled. "She figured it out herself. She's pretty smart, you know."

"Oh."

They stood in a silence for a while.

"I wasn't always crushing on her." Bradley admitted. "It happened over time. She was so cool and nice and smart and I couldn't believe she would rather hang out with you than me. ...Why am I telling you this?"

"Eh." Milo shrugged and yawned. "It's the middle of the night, who cares."

"You know, I always felt like me and Melissa had something going on but... I don't know. She was nice to me but she never chose me over you anyway. No matter if you intended it or not - you were always in the middle of everyone's attention. And it just made me..." he took a pause. "...lonely."

Milo glanced at Bradley. He looked very tired and small.

"You know..." Milo smiled faintly. "Believe it or not, I was lonely too. Murphy's law might have put me in the center of everyone's attention but... No one wanted to be near me, not really. Melissa was my one and only friend for a really long time. And she was very lonely too, before she befriended me. I think she was always hoping that she, me and you would become like, a trio of friends. Kinda like, you know... Two boys and one girl, like in a sitcom?"

"I know the type, yeah."

"Well... Real life decided to write it differently. We were all very lonely kids but we never became a trio. And yet, she was always nice to you because... I think she was giving you a chance. She... She only started giving up on you this year." he admitted quietly. "Slowly."

"So I've noticed." he hid his face in his hands. "I really messed it up good, didn't I?"

"Maybe, I'm not sure. It seems like her faith in you returned after you joined our team. I think she just wants your friendship but... she's not sure if you want the same."

Bradley looked at him slowly, his eyes wide.

"...She gave up on me because this year she got what she wanted!" he realized and raised his fists. "Zack joined your party! I've been jealous of the wrong guy this entire time!"

"No. Nope. Bradley, we're not going to do that." Milo put his hands on Bradley's fists and forced them down. "You do remember the constructive criticism I gave you, right? Start giving people a chance, okay? Zack is one of my best friends and he's way cooler than you think."

Bradley growled theatrically.

"Fffine." he rolled his eyes. "I'm gonna give Zack a chance or whatever. But you gotta work on yourself too. Do you really think you're the leader? Please. We all know Amanda is the one who makes all kinds of decisions in this team. We wouldn't last two seconds without her."

"Maybe you're onto something." Milo couldn't help but chuckle.

They stared at the sky for a short moment.

"Ugh! I am sooo tired!" Bradley rubbed his eyelids. "I'm going to sleep now, goodnight!"

He turned around and went back inside the house. Milo looked at the stars one more time before he did the same.

"Goodnight, Bradley."

* * *

In the morning they all went to school together. Milo returned the kitchen knife after the classes ended.

On Wednesday they faced yet another event. They all got binded together with a rope, making them united in their movements. Their goal was to reach from point A to point B without falling.

Needless to say - they aced it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The movie they watched is called "Coraline", it's one of my favorite movies ever and you should absolutely see it if you haven't yet.


	7. Blinded

Lydia liked to act. Performing on the stage was giving her an opportunity to be... someone else.

And yes, she was that kind of person who was way too eager to please. Maybe she was loyal to a fault. But she was also working on herself. She had a group of friends who were there for her in the times of need.

That of course didn't change the fact that she almost started crying when she accidentaly broke the glass that she was supposed to get. Thank god her friends couldn't see her face.

They had to play the blind waiter for the last event of this week.

Milo had to sit on his hands, on the chair in the middle of the room. The rest of the team was blindfolded. The goal was to serve water to Milo, who had to drink it without using hands.

The catch was that each team member could perform only one task and that too with just one hand. All the things they needed were kept around various locations in the class, for them to be found. Milo, being the only one who could see, was trying to guide them.

So far Bradley found the bottle of water, Amanda found the rather reflective food tray and Lydia found the glass. The only problem was that she just broke it by accident.

"Don't worry, Lydia, I'm sure there are more glasses in the cupboard." Milo said. "Reach your hand up and a little bit to the right... Watch out!"

All the shelves decided to suddenly fall down. A terrible sound of dozens of glasses breaking all at once filled the room. Everyone who was blindfolded screamed.

"What was that?" Zack shrieked.

"Lydia, are you okay?" Amanda asked.

"I'm... fine..." her voice was shaky but she wasn't crying. She was very close to losing it though. Ooh, they were losing time because of her!

"It's not your fault, Lydia." Milo told her. "It was the Murphy's law."

"How about I... stop the clock so you children can start again after we... clean up the mess?" Mr. Drako suggested.

"No, no, we can still do it!" Milo turned his head around. Of course they could stop the event, but that would make Lydia blame herself for it. If he could find a way for her to help with the Murphy's law, that would boost her self-confidence a little bit. "Oh! Lydia! There's one last glass on the counter behind me!"

He guided her, his voice calm, making sure she wouldn't step on any broken glass pieces. Lydia, her hand shaking, picked up the unbroken glass and returned to her team. With Milo's help, the rest of the exercise went relatively smoothly. Zack opened the bottle and Bradley poured to water to the glass (half of it landed on the floor, but he managed to pour just enough). Lydia put the glass on the food tray and Amanda delivered it to Melissa, who held the glass for Milo so he could drink the water.

"We did it!" Milo exclaimed after emptying the glass.

Mr. Drako saved their time and the team took the blindfolds off. They discovered that the floor was wet and full of broken glass, scattered pretty much everywhere. It was a miracle that none of them got hurt. Lydia turned around so her friends wouldn't see how embarrassed she was for messing up this badly.

Suddenly Melissa put an arm around her shoulder.

"Everything alright?" she asked.

"Y-Yeah, I'm just..." Lydia sighed. "I think I'm just nervous, but also excited! But so, so nervous, but so very excited!"

"I can see that." Melissa chuckled. "Why is that?"

"It's just... I don't want to disappoint anyone, since, you know." Lydia took a deep breath. "The Friendship Games will be over soon. There's only one week left. I just... I want to prove myself useful."

"You did good today." Melissa gave her a warm smile. "Want to hang out this weekend? We can watch more creepy movies together."

"Oh!" Lydia beamed. "Oh, yes! That's a great idea!"

Milo watched his friends slowly leaving the classrom. He walked up to Zack before he left as well.

"Do you have any plans for the weekend?" Milo asked.

"I do, actually." Zack smiled. "Me and Bradley are going to play some video games. He said that he's going to destroy me which I think is his way of being friendly."

"Oh! That's awesome!" his first instinct was to ask if he can tag along but then he remembered something. "Well, you two have fun together! I gotta run now!"

"Where are you running?"

"I promised something to Amanda!" Milo blushed and ran, trying to catch up to her.

She noticed him and waited until he was right next to her.

"So!" his face was completely red. "H-How about that date?"

Amanda took his hand and squeezed it gently.

"Let's go." 

* * *

"Cavendish's log, entry number four." said Cavendish. "We are standing on an empty field. We left the limousine back at home since we don't really need it right now. We can return to it right after we finish our mission. We want to make the monster come to us so we can fight it. We have a variety of firearms, explosives and other weapons - pretty much everything we need. We are ready. The only thing we don't have yet are hairs that belong to Milo and his friends. We hope that the monster will sense them and appear, falling right into our trap. Dakota, are you ready?"

"Yup."

"Don't forget to give that kitchen knife to Milo so he can return it."

"I won't forget."

ZAP!

Dakota disappeared. Cavendish looked around. This field looked like it was made for a fight with such monster. In fact, he wouldn't be surprised if there was some kind of historical battle on this field before. This place was kind of perfect - grassy, on top of a hill, far away from Danville. It was a beautiful day, too. The sky was blue and mostly cloudless.

Cavendish waited for his partner for about five seconds.

ZAP!

"I'm back."

"So did you get it?"

"Yeah, see?" he showed him six differently colored hairs in his hand.

"Ew." Cavendish stopped the recording.

"Also! Milo gave me this baseball bat after I told him we're gonna fight the monster. It's so nice of him! Although... I probably won't use it." he put it down on the ground, and grabbed a rifle instead. "I can't imagine how a baseball bat would prove itself useful against something like... that. We can't mess around."

"Wait, wait, wait! You told Milo about the monster?!"

"I spared them the gruesome details. Don't worry."

"Them? Are you suggesting that the kids were in one room TOGETHER? What if the monster was watching when you revealed our plans to them?"

"There was no monster."

"But how can you be so sure?"

"Milo's dog was calm."

Cavendish thought about it. A dog would probably sense any unwanted presence. So if Diogee acted calm, there was probably nothing to worry about.

"...Very well."

"Now, let's see if the hair thing works."

They waited only for a short while. Finally, a dimensional rift opened and the monster appeared. He was impossible to miss, impossible to mistake it for something else. A horrifying, floating mass of eyes, mouths, limbs, flesh, tentacles, black goo and god knows what else. He was a giant sack, constantly changing his shape but if he resembled a human, he would be looking around, confused.

"He looks way bigger than the last time." Cavendish whispered nervously.

"Don't worry, we got this." Dakota put a hand on his partner's shoulder.

Finally the monster spotted them.

"̡̕͏H̨̕a̷v̸͘e͏ ̨we̛ ͝met ̨͡b̶̕ef̛͢o͞re͏̷?̢"  
---  
  
"Yes." Dakota smirked. "In the future."


	8. Puzzle Pieces

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warning: there's some death and blood in this chapter. Nothing that Dwampy didn't do to poor Cavendish before, except, you know, I don't play it for laughs. So yeah, that's a heads-up.
> 
> Thank you for reading and for all the comments so far, I love you.

It was Monday and the team was heading towards the next event. Mr. Drako pointed at the right classroom, Milo pressed the handle... but then he immediately closed the door and turned around.

"Wait, before we go in there..." he said. "I have to ask about something, before I forget! Zack! How did your weekend with Bradley go?"

Zack and Bradley looked at each other surprised.

"It was fun." Zack shrugged. "We played some games and we sang some songs..."

"Yeah, why are we talking about this right now?" Bradley raised his eyebrows. "We can tell you all the details later."

"Oh, Bradley!" Zack grinned, suddenly remembering something. "Do the arm thing!"

"Do we HAVE to do it right now?"

"What's the arm thing?" Milo asked.

Bradley sighed deeply and raised his plant arm above Zack's head.

"I am Underwood!" Zack beamed.

"HA!" Melissa screamed, then quickly covered her mouth with her hands, still chuckling. "I'm sorry, this was... so funny."

"Yes, it is pretty amusing." Mr. Drako agreed. "However I have other teams to take care of. Can we move on now?"

"Yes, I'm sorry for the hold up." Milo smiled apologetically. They entered the classroom.

In the middle of the room there was a box placed on the round table. The picture on the cover displayed a color palette.

"A jigsaw puzzle?" Bradley asked skeptically. "How hard can it be?"

"I mean... those ARE like one thousand pieces." Zack noticed.

"Oh, I know this one!" Amanda's eyes started glittering. "This is the exact same jigsaw puzzle I gave to charity once! I've solved it before many, many times!"

"Wait, does it mean you can solve it fast?" Milo asked.

She looked at him and smiled. She spent this weekend hanging out with him, walking around the city and talking, while avoiding the calamity caused by the Murphy's law. At one point he started talking about time travel, bootstrap paradoxes, stable time loops and all that kind of stuff. He seemed very excited and Amanda was glad to listen. At first she thought she would find it boring so it surprised her how much she got into the subject. The idea of creating stable time loops seemed especially pleasing to her - going back in time not to change history (which kind of looked like breaking the rules, in her opinion) but to become responsible for creating already existing history in the first place. It was like making sure everything falls into place, and she was all about that.

So yeah, the date went nice.

"I can do it, with a little help." Amanda admitted. "I might be a little rusty though... Let's get to work! Let's segregate them first, it will make things much easier. Milo, you look for the outside pieces, make a frame out of them. Bradley, you take care of the dark pieces, Lydia, get the yellow ones. Melissa, you take the white ones, and Zack the cyan ones. And I'll..." she took a deep breath and grinned. "I will take care of the magenta ones."

Suddenly no other than Dakota entered the classroom. He looked worse for wear - tired, but still smiling.

"Hi, everyone." he said, walking through the classroom. "Don't mind me, I just have places to go."

"Hi, Dakota. What's with your hair?" Milo asked, noticing his grey streak.

"Thanks, I like it too!" he entered the classroom closet and closed the door behind him. After a second or two they heard a muffled ZAP.

Mr. Drako walked up to the closet's door and opened it.

"He's gone!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah, time travelers do that." Milo smiled.

"What was that all about?" Zack raised his eyebrows.

"Eh, who knows." Melissa shrugged. "If it's important it will come back later."

"Can we focus on the jigsaw puzzle?" Amanda asked.

"Ready?" Mr. Drako raised his stopwatch.

"Yes!" Amanda looked down on the puzzle. This will be a piece of cake.

"Set! Go!" 

* * *

"Cavendish's log! Entry number five!" Cavendish screamed. "We've been fighting this thing for a while now! Nothing we do seems to be working! It's like... it's like nothing can hurt him! I don't understand! Why did the kitchen knife work then?"

"Cavendish!" Dakota yelled from the other side of the field. "Now it's not the time! Focus!"

He managed to set off another batch of explosives. The fire staggered the monster but didn't hurt him.

"P͞e͜st͡s̛..̧.͞"̕  
---  
  
ZAP!

Suddenly another Dakota appeared. Without hesitation, he launched himself onto Cavendish, pushing him out of the way of the giant monster part coming down to smash him.

"Nnooo..." the previous Dakota whispered loudly. "He died?!"

"I'm sorry, pal!" the new Dakota answered.

ZAP!

The third Dakota appeared, taking Cavendish even further away. A giant tentacle smashed the ground where he just stood.

"You're kidding me." the second Dakota mumbled.

Cavendish looked at the two doomed Dakotas, then at the Dakota who saved him.

"What's going on?!"

"You're dying in other timelines! It's happening again!" Dakota breathed heavily. "I can't take it... not again... It's way too dangerous here, we have to get out of here this inst- WATCH OUT!"

He pushed him away as hard as he could and launched himself into the opposite direction, falling on his face, into tall grass. A black tentacle made of ooze hit the ground between them, narrowly missing them both.

Dakota looked up, blinking. There was a baseball bat, laying on the ground, right in front of his nose.

Everything else failed. He had nothing to lose by trying - he grabbed the bat, stood up and readied himself.

A black hand made of ooze shot straight into his direction. Dakota closed his eyes, clenched his teeth and swinged the bat. It cut through the ooze like a knife through butter. The monster opened all of his mouths and made a screech resembling a hundred of nails scratching a blackboard. Dakota screamed, covering up his ears. He then re-opened his eyes, breathing heavily. He noticed a black hand laying on the ground, severed from the monster. It was melting.

While two other Dakotas provided a diversion, Cavendish managed to set off another batch of explosives, staggering the creature from behind. It seemed to do much less damage than the baseball bat though.

"Hey, Cav!" Dakota yelled. "Would you please throw a branch at him or something?"

"And why would I do that?!"

"I just want to see if... I want try something out, Cav, just- just do it!!"

Cavendish looked around and picked up a solid-looking branch. He put all his strength into his throw. This should do as much damage as throwing a spear but it seemed to do absolutely nothing.

"Okay, thanks!" Dakota yelled and looked at the baseball bat that Milo gave him.

Alright, so it wasn't the wood that dealt damage. It was something else but Dakota couldn't figure out what. This baseball bat looked just like any normal baseball bat, there was nothing special about it. So why did it work as if it was the world's most powerful weapon? Maybe by the power of friendship? ...Nah, it had to be something more.

Suddenly the monster succeeded in grabbing the doomed Dakota on the right around his waist. He lifted him above the ground. This Dakota tried to free himself but to no avail. Cavendish's shoulders lowered and his eyes widened.

"Vinnie..." he muttered.

He observed the doomed Dakota slowly travelling to one of the monster's many mouths. As soon as the doomed one realized what was going to happen to him, he started screaming. Cavendish took a deep breath.

"VINNIE!" he shrieked.

The sound of Cavendish's voice snapped the other doomed Dakota into action. He ran to Cavendish and forcefully turned him around. They could still hear the scream though.

"Don't look!" this Dakota said. "Run to the real Dakota, now!"

"What do you mean by REAL?!"

Suddenly they heard a chomp and the scream abruptly stopped. Next, they both heard a dull sound of a headless body hitting the ground.

"It means I'm the irrelevant one now, so don't worry! Don't look back! Run!" he pushed him away, forcing himself to smile reassuringly.

As soon as he did it, a tentacle grabbed his ankle and pulled back, making him fall down. Cavendish was already too far away, but it was a good thing - he was running to the real Dakota, increasing his chances of surival. The monster dragged the doomed Dakota on the ground for a while before lifting him up as well. The doomed one was trying to grab onto something but pulling out some grass was all he could do right now.

Cavendish wasn't looking but he didn't have to. He heard a tentacle coming down, smashing the doomed Dakota's spine into pieces.

The "real" Dakota was unable to move at the moment, staring at both of his dead bodies at the other side of the field.

"Let's get out of here!" Cavendish yelled. He got to his partner, grabbed his shoulders and started shaking him. This made him snap out of it.

"Right... right!" he started to change data on his watch but his hands were shaking and he kept messing it up. "I'm sorry, I-I'm here, it's fine, it's fine. Those other Dakotas were just... doomed versions of me so don't worry about that!"

"How can you say that! You were the same person like a couple of minutes ago!"

"Don't think about it, don't think about it, don't think about it..."

"How do you even decide on who is real and who's not?"

"The real me saw your every single death."

"Why would you even do that to yourself?!"

"I... don't even know. WATCH OUT!"

He had to forcefully push him away once more. A tentacle fell between them. Dakota waited for it to move out of the way so he could grab Cavendish and zap out of here but the monster didn't move it. He started to smash the ground with other monster parts, making them run into different directions, trying to keep them separated.

Dakota started running away, to get away from the monster, hoping that Cavendish would manage to stay alive for a little longer. He stopped running after he noticed two dead bodies, one of them laying in the pool of blood. His blood. Oh, don't think about it, don't think about it...

He threw up, not being able to take it much longer. Funny. Considering how many times he saw Cavendish's dead body, he'd think he'd be immune. But seeing his own dead bodies (two at once, on top of everything) was a whole new experience.

But why was it bothering him so much? How was this any different? Was anything real at all? He had the power to change the timeline at any given time. If he died right now, would it really matter? Another Dakota from a different timeline would probably arrive to save the day. A diversion was all those doomed Dakota were good for.

A diversion...

He forced himself to focus again. No, of course it was all real, what was he DOING? The monster had eyes everywhere. If they wanted to run, they needed a diversion, fast! A new idea suddenly popped into Dakota's head.

It was extremely risky but if it meant saving Cavendish, it was worth it. All he had to do was... well... to not die again.

He raised his baseball bat as if he was wielding a katana and ran straight towards the monster.

ZAP!

Cavendish turned around, to see where the sound came from. A new Dakota appeared, running straight towards the monster. ZAP! And another one. ZAP! ZAP! Two more. ZAP! ZAP! ZAP! ZAP! ZAP!

Ten Dakotas were running around the area, not really attacking but trying very hard not to die. They were defending themselves with the baseball bat, very effectively at that. ZAP! There were fifteen Dakotas now. Twenty. The number was growing with every ZAP! ZAP! ZAP! Minutes were passing and the monster seemed to be more and more distracted.

Cavendish's eyes were going from one Dakota to the other.

"I'm here, I'm here!" Dakota on the far left screamed, running in the completely different direction than all the other ones. Cavendish ran as well, to meet him halfway. Finally, they both fell right into each other's embrace.

Dakota winded his arms around his partner's neck and turned the mechanism on his watch.

ZAP!

Suddenly the field, all the Dakotas and the monster disappeared. They were now safe in the time stream, surrounded by the purple-lime light and the floating clocks.

"Dakota? My goodness! Can you explain to me what was that?!"

"I ran off to fight the monster, then traveled back in time. Fought the monster again, traveled back in time... And so on and so on... No biggie..."

His voice was very weak and quiet. Cavendish just remembered how many zaps he managed to count.

"But there were like, at least forty or fifty of you, maybe more! Are seriously trying to tell me that you were just fighting the same monster that many times? To create a diversion?! You did that voluntarily and you didn't die a single time?

Dakota was too weak to respond.

ZAP!

They appeared right in the middle of their small apartament. The living room seemed so incredibly grounded in reality, it gave them a wonderful sense of safety that they both desperately needed right now. Dakota still had his arm wrapped around Cavendish's shoulder. Milo's baseball bat fell out from his hand and rolled on the floor. It was nighttime.

"Seriously, how did you do that? That was incredible!" Cavendish exclaimed. "That stunt of yours must have taken hours!"

Dakota started slipping away and Cavendish had to grab and hold him tight so he wouldn't fall on the floor. He was unconscious. 


	9. Cavendish's log, entry number one

It was rainy all day but the weather didn't get in the way of the overall excitement. Today the second to last event was taking place. The Friendship Games were almost at an end and every student was getting hyped for the big finale.

Milo and his team entered the classroom, marked with a big banner "Baking Competition!" Milo and Amanda looked at each other with a smile. They had some experience, baking together. This should not be hard.

Inside the class there was a fridge, a cooker, all kinds of kitchen gear and a cookbook, placed on the moving table, covered in white tablecloth, right in the center of the class. Milo recognized the kitchen knife that he returned about a week ago, laying on the dish dryer.

"Your task is to bake something together." Mr. Drako said. "Choose something from the cookbook. Ready, set... Go!"

"Oh, I see." Melissa opened the cookbook. "Choosing something is part of the task. We gotta decide together quickly."

"But there are so many options!" Zack noticed.

"Alright, alright..." Amanda rolled up her sleeves. "What food from this cookbook is the fastest one to make?"

"The brownies."

"Are you sure Milo?"

"Huh?" Milo said.

"We're making the brownies then." she decided. "I mean... as long as that's okay with the rest of you."

"It is!" Bradley furrowed his eyesbrows. "Let's not waste time!"

"Alright! Lydia, we're gonna need two teaspoons of vanilla extract. Milo, two large eggs. Bradley, get a half a teaspoon of salt. Melissa, one cup of granulated sugar. Zack, one cup of milk chocolate chips..."

She continued to tell them what to do. Milo took two eggs from the fridge and was trying to bring them to Amanda but one of them turned out to be a little slippery and fell out from his hand. He closed his eyes, waiting for impact. But when he re-opened them, he discovered that the egg was laying on the floor, unbroken. Milo picked it up, intrigued, and examined it carefully. The egg didn't even had a scratch. Weird.

Zack was already whisking butter with the sugar. Milo walked up to him to add the eggs to the bowl. They cracked without any problem. Interesting.

After Lydia added in the vanilla extract, Melissa picked up the bag of flour and the entire flour got out through a big hole in the bag. At the same time Amanda, who was trying to get the metal pan, had to jump away, before the entire cupboard fell down on her. It made even bigger mess. Suddenly some kind of ball broke the window, adding glass pieces to the mix. This was also the moment when Bradley decided to say:

"I can't find any salt."

"Whoa." Zack didn't stop whisking. "Murphy's law kicked in strongly and very suddenly today, huh?"

"Yeah." Melissa was still holding the empty flour bag. "It's like there's two Milos in one room."

"Um..." Milo started.

Lydia screamed shortly, slipping and landing on the floor. Amanda reached her hand for the parchment paper that turned out to be full of holes.

"This is fine." she took few deep breaths. "We can still make it. This is nothing for us."

Suddenly the door to the classroom swung clean off its hinges and landed flat on the floor. Dakota walked in. He looked as tired as he was yeasterday.

"Good evening." he said, his voice unsure. "Sorry for the door, I don't know what happened..."

"Murphy's law." Milo explained.

"Ah, alright then. Uhh... This is gonna sound weird but... have you seen the Milo from the future?"

Milo was just about to answer, when someone crawled from under the table. Everyone gasped and took a step back. It was... another Milo. He looked like he had a rough day. He turned around to look at his past-self.

"So it's true then?" the present Milo asked him.

"Yup."

"And Bradley?"

"No clue."

"Alright..." he then smirked. "I gotta say... that was kind of sloppy. I could tell you were here pretty much from the start. It's like you weren't trying to hide at all. Am I really that bad at hiding?"

"I knew you'd figure it out anyway, because of this doubled Murphy's law mess, so trying to hide would be pointless. Oh, and don't worry." he smiled. Dakota was already dragging him outside the classroom. "It will make much more sense in the future!"

Dakota and the future Milo left. It was quiet for a second.

"Umm, Milo?" Zack asked. "Care to... explain? Or something? No? ...Okay."

Bradley took a deep breath.

"Aha!" he exclaimed loudly. "In your FACE, Melissa!" he booped her nose with his plant arm. "I won! He DID clone us after all!"

"I am absolutely sure it was just time travel, Bradley." Milo said.

"But you can't prove that, MILO!"

"Since the Murphy's law is a little bit more manageable at the moment, can we please focus on baking?" Amanda reminded them. "Bradley, we're wasting time."

* * *

"Woohoo!" Dakota drummed his fingers on the wheel. "Time travel is back, baby!"

The lime-purple glow highlighting his excited face made him look way younger than he actually was. He looked beautiful.

"Admit it." Cavendish smiled. "You've missed it too."

"Yeah, alright, maybe a little." his partner grinned. "Okay, maybe more than I want to admit. I did apply for the job for a reason, time travel is awesome!"

"So... when are we going?"

"A month forward. I think. From what I overheard."

"Wait." Cavendish put a hand on his shoulder. "Type in some earlier date. We don't know anything about the monster. We should try to snoop around first, and gather as much information as we can."

"Good thinking. Alright. While we're waiting, we should look around the limo, see what we can find here."

They both managed to climb out of the driver compartment and slip at the back of the car, to check the loot. They threw every futuristic gadget they managed to find on the seats, including a couple of time grenades. Dakota found some kind of a wrist watch. He immediately put it on.

"How do I look?" he asked his partner, showcasing his hand.

"What is this?" Cavendish squinted his eyes. "It can't possibly be..."

"A pocket time machine? Yes, yes it is."

"How did they get their hands on this... You don't think that... another model would perhaps be laying around here somewhere?"

"Sorry, I've found only this one. But I can give it to you if you want."

"Hmm... No, you can keep it." Cavendish shrugged. "But please look at what I've found."

He showed him a cassette tape recorder. It didn't look futuristic. Perhaps Brick and Savannah took it for perseverance or for the museum or something.

"Cool!" Dakota said.

"I'm gonna use it to record our little adventure, so we can have a proof that we saved the world." Cavendish smiled smugly.

"That's smart. You do that."

Cavendish kept playing with the recorder, trying to get it to work. In the meantime, Dakotareturned behind the wheel. Cavendish took his seat as well, finally pressing the correct button on the recorder.

"Cavendish's log, entry number one. My name is Balthazar Cavendish. Me and my partner, Vinnie Dakota, are about to face an evil monster, who is threating this timeline. First, we're going to gather just enough information to be able to come up with the plan on how to defeat it. Our first stop is..."

ZAP!

The limousine finally landed. It was nighttime. Cavendish looked outside the window to see where they were.

"...Jefferson County Middle School?" Cavendish finished, stopping the recording.

They exited the limo. The night wasn't cold but they couldn't see any stars. The sky was completely black and it was a little hard to breathe.

"The storm is coming." Cavendish said quietly.

"I guess we should go inside?" Dakota suggested.

"Are you sure? Why would the monster hide inside this middle school?"

"We will never know unless we check. That's why we're here, right?"

"Okay, fine. But let's try to stay as quiet as possible. The monster could be around any corner. Plus we don't want to get any unneccessary attention. No window breaking this time, is that clear? "

"Yeah, yeah, I won't do it again." Dakota walked up to the front door.

"What are you doing? Do you really think that they would just left the middle school open like that?"

Dakota pushed the door and they opened without any problem.

"Oh." Cavendish blinked.

They stepped inside, looking around. Empty school hallways were creepy at night - dark and empty, filled with echoes of their own steps. However nothing seemed too out of place and they started to think that maybe they should get out of here before they get caught or something.

"Cavendish's log, entry number two. So far no signs of any strange- Hey, what's this?" Cavendish pointed at one of the classrooms.

The banner above it claimed that the "Baking Competition!" was held in here. There was no door. The board on the wall was filled with names and numbers.

"Friendship Games." Cavendish read. "Some kind of contest?"

"Ooh, is this a leaderboard? Who's winning?" Dakota leaned over to read it.

"Milo Murphy!" they said at the same time.

"Oh, man!" Dakota grinned. "I am SO proud of this kid!"

"Dakota." Cavendish muttered, staring at something at the other side of the hallway.

"Looks like all of his friends are in his team too!"

"Dakota."

"I mean, the contest DOES have the word friendship in its name, so-"

"Dakota!" Cavendish hissed, putting a hand on his partner's head, grabbing it and turning around.

"Oh."

The monster was of the eldritch kind. An indescribable mass of eyes, mouths, hands, tentacles and black ooze, constantly changing its shape. They didn't hear it coming - it was floating above the ground, silently. It observed them, from the other side of the hallway.

"I͞t̵'s y̴ou."  
---  
  
"Maybe it's friendly." Dakota suggested. "Hello! Have we met before?"

"͜Y͝es. In th̛e̵ past͟."  
---  
  
The monster started to slowly float towards them.

"͘Y҉ou͢ ҉u̡sed ͟the hai͢r͝ of͜ ţh҉e ̨co̕ntestant͞s to l͘ur͞e me in͏to̢ y͠ou̡r͟ ̧trap͢."  
---  
  
"Ah. You see, it's funny! From our perspective we meet for the very first time! Can we... Can we talk?"

"͠Why̢ ͢n̨ot."  
---  
  
Cavendish gulped and dragged Dakota backwards, inside the classroom. If the baking competition was held in here, surely they could find some sharp objects to defend themselves with. He noticed a big kitchen knife laying on the dish dryer and he slowly started to walk backwards, so he could hide it behind his back and grab it without attracting the monster's attention. Dakota stayed in the middle of the room, to talk with the creature. The monster stopped moving in the door frame, preventing them from leaving.

"Let's start with some friendly introductions! My name is Dakota and that's my partner Cavendish! What's your name?"

The monster made a sound resembling throwing up.

"That's... a beautiful name!" Dakota lied. "So what are you doing here, in this... middle school... Shouldn't you... go home or something? There's an important contest that takes place and our friends are close to winning it! We wouldn't want someone to interrupt them, would we?"

The monster made an awful guttural sound and they had to assume it's his way of chuckling.

"͟F͠o͘olish̷ ̕m͝o̶rt͡al͠s.̢ ̸I creat͡e͢ḑ th̸e͝ Fri͠end͜sh̡ip Games̕.͝"  
---  
  
There was a very pregnant pause, before Dakota managed to form a question.

"...Why?"

"I̶ ҉c҉ome back t̛o̴ t͘his dimen͢sio̷n ҉e͠ve͏ry͡ ͟no͠w ̷a̛nd͠ t̕he̸n. I̡ a̢lw͡ay͘s̨ ta̛k͟e o͟n̕e hu̡m͞an wi͢th̷ ̛m̴e,̡ s͠o͜ th͜e͢y̨ c̴a̸n͞ s͟erv̕e m͞e. Usu̕a̡lly I̢ ͏pi̴ck someone͝ t͡h̴at̴ ̛no̴ one w̸o̧u͏l̕d̸ miss͠.͜ ͡B̧u҉t t͜h͢e͝r͢e'̢s ̵a pr̶obl̸em ̡wi̕th ̡huma̶n͟s̛,̛ ͠yo͢u ͜se̷e͠ - ͠f̸irst͏ of͝ all, ͘t͞h̕ęy l̷i͞ve̕ f͜or a ̴v͏ery̷ ͡sho̸rt̷ a̴moun͡ţ ̢o͘f͡ t̸im̕e. And s͠e͠c̨o̴ņd o̶f ̶all҉,͜ I͢'ve ̕di͜sc̴ovȩr̸ed th͘a͘t͞ ͟t̢h҉ey ̕are the̡ ̵mo͠st̶ ҉e̶ffi̧ci͡ent̴ ̸wh̛en th̴ey ̵wor̢k t͏oget̷h͟e͜r. S͘ǫ ̴I̵'͏v̛e̴ ͜dȩcid̨ed̴ to inf̶ļuenc̕e a ͜cou͝pl͞e o̕f͡ aḑult̷s a͝nd͟.͠..̢ ̛her͠e̴ we ģo.͠ F̸rie͠n͞dshi͝p͝ Ga͞mes̶.̛ ͞A f͏ak͡e cont͠e͘s̡t, he͘l͟d ̛on̴ly ͠so̡ I ͢could find҉ t̨h͢ę right g͏ro͜up̡ ̸o̴f̢ s͘i̴x̡ chi͝ld҉ŗen, ̸b̷ȩinģ ͢ab̷le͢ ͠t͜o ͢wo̵rk̷ ̢t͟o͏g̕ęther͠ ̢effi͠c͞ientl͘y̨ an͠d fas͟t̶. S͞o ̡t̡hey ̴could s͘e̕r̸ve m̴e fo̢r͝ a͢ ͟l̡ơo̷o̕ng͘ tim͢e."͟

He started floating towards Dakota, who started slowly walking backwards, trying to get closer to Cavendish.

"͢A͘t fi̕rst ̸I̡ ̡wante͜d to͡ t̵a̶ke ̛t̕h͢e͞ winning̛ t̨e̴a̸m ̶w͟i͞t̷h̨ ̢me,̛ a͟s ̧t͝heir ̸pr̴i͞ze̵. ͝B̴ut th̢e̸n I̷ r͞e͞a̸li҉zed͡ s͠o͡mething..͟. ҉I͜'͢v͡e̶ ̴ơb͟s̵er͝v̨ed҉ e͡v̶er̛y̡ ͟s̵ingle ̸t̛eam ͘f̴ŗom the sha̛do͘ws, f͏o̧r t͞he ͠en̸t̡ir͏e͠ mo̸nth.͘ ͘An̴d͡ ̡i̡t̡ ͞do͟es̸n͏'t͏ m̨a͢t͡t͜er̨ who̴'͡s͏ ͜g͡o͏iņg to win a͏n͞y̧more - ̸I've alre͝ad̕y d̨ecided w͢h̷o i͢s ̵th͡e ͡bes̵t҉ c͠a͡n̕did̴ate̢.̷ ͞M̵ilo͠ Mur͘p̵hy͝.̡.͠. D͠u͡e͘ t͢o his unưsu͏a̡l l̕ack̢ of҉ ̡luc͏k͞,̶ ̴h̸e h̴as l͞ea͢rnt ho͞w ̕t̨o͡ ͜o͡ve̵rcome͘ the͏ ͢moşt̴ d̵įff͏ic̛u͏lt̸ ҉of ob̛sta̧cl̢es͘. I w͜i̶l͘l ͞b͢e͞ t̢a̡k͟i̢ng͞ him̛ ̷an͞d h̷is̢ ̴f̨r͢i͘end̡s̕ ̶to ͠my d͟ime̷n̨si̡o͡n̵ w̷ḩe̴r͟e͟ thȩy wil̷l se͝rv̷e͏ m̧e͜ ͞f̨or the͢ ̵r̶e͠st͞ o͞f̡ t̵hȩir̷ b̛ori̸n̢g lives. ͟And after̕ th͟e͟y҉ (aņd͜ ̧th̢e̕i͢r fu͡tu͜r҉e hyp̢o̢th̵et͘ic͡al ̢child͢re͘n) di͜e,̕ ͝Į ͢wi̢ll ͠come͏ ba͡ck̨ ̨fo͏r͏ mo̕r͡e. ͘An͞d҉ ͏t̛here's not̡hi̵ng̴ y҉ou ̧can̵ do͏ ̸t̢o s̕t͢op ͜me. I͞ ̨cann̴o̷t ͟d͡i̡e͞. ͜Bu̷t ͘y̧o̡u̢, o͞n̸ th͡e͟ o͜th̶e͞r̕ h̷a̷nd̛..."̴  
---  
  
A black hand made of ooze started slowly moving towards Dakota's face. He couldn't back off any further - he went all the way to Cavendish, having him right behind his back.

"Yo͢u̶r҉ b̕ra͟i͢n ͘ta͏s͢tes ̢deli͞c͞io͠us, you kno̢w. An̷d your spi͏n̵e̸ ͠m̡ak̛es͟ t̨he ̡m͠o͠s͠t ̴bea͢ut͝iful͘ of ͝soun̕ds͠.̛"̨  
---  
  
"Wh-Why are you telling us all this?" Dakota felt sweatdrops sliding down his forehead. "Aren't you afraid we're going to tell someone about this?"

"Ơh pl͝eas͠e. Wh͠at͢ m͜ake͠s ̸you t̢hi̴nk you̡'rę ͠g͘et̕t҉i̴ng o̡u͟t͘ of her͘e ̶aliv͢e?̶"͘  
---  
  
This was the moment when Cavendish decided to swing the knife at the monster. The sharp edge slashed one of his eyes. The monster floated back, screeching horribly. Cavendish and Dakota ducked underneath him and bolted through the dark hallway, running towards the exit. If the monster started chasing them (and he most likely did), they wouldn't even hear him getting closer. He was probably right behind them already. They could almost feel his hands on their backs. Too afraid to look back, they finally got out of the school and ran straight towards the limo. Dakota jumped behind the wheel and as soon as his partner found himself on the passenger seat, he stepped on the gas pedal.

ZAP!

The time stream was nice and monster-less.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Cavendish yelled.

"I DON'T KNOW!"

They breathed heavily for a moment. Cavendish realized that he was still holding the kitchen knife in one hand and the cassette tape recorder in the other. He threw the knife at the back of the car. They will return it later. He also finally stopped the recording, realizing that he captured the monster's entire confession.

He then stared into the nothingness, while his partner started yelling all kind of swear words, righteously furious about the whole situation.

Cavendish started thinking. They could go back in time and tell Milo to never enter the contest... But that wouldn't really change much. They probably weren't able to stop the Friendship Games from happening, as too many schools and adults were involved. Someone would eventually win the contest anyway, and the monster would kidnap them instead. Not to mention, he still would be out there, free and dangerous. They really had no other choice - they had to fight him.

Dakota was still raging.

"...THAT DISGUSTING PREDATOR, THAT VOMITING SACK OF GARBAGE, THAT- AAARGH!"

"That's right, let it all out." Cavendish mumbled, patting his partner's arm, while Dakota was hitting the steering wheel with his fists and making indistinctable sounds with his mouth.

He finally calmed down a little bit, still breathing heavily, then stopped moving or saying anything whatsoever, staring into the nothingness too.

ZAP!

It was late at night. The limousine appeared on the parking lot, nearby their apartament. They sat in a complete silence for a while. Dakota had his fingers on the wheel, clenching them so hard, his knuckles turned pale. Finally, without a word, he left the car and slammed the door behind him, making the remaining glass fall on the ground. He then walked up the stairs and disappeared in the apartament.


	10. Escape

"Ladies and gentlemen!" the voice from the speakers filled the school grounds. "Welcome to the Friendship Games' final event - ESCAPE THE ROOM!"

The audience went wild.

Between the bleachers there was a metal room, similar to the truth booth. The audience was able to follow the event by looking at the big screen, installed in a way so the other teams couldn't see it, transmitting whatever was going on inside the room. Teams were entering it blindfolded and they were coming out after about twenty minutes, sometimes more. Milo and his friends were sitting on the bench, waiting for their turn. 

"I brought some snacks with me, just in case." Amanda pulled out a protein candy bar. "Anybody want some?"

"Maybe later." Lydia responded.

"I did the math." Melissa said after another moment passed. "If we want to win the Friendship Games with out current score, we have to solve this room in five minutes or less."

"I'm going to have to make sure you guys won't lose any time then." Bradley commented. Lydia and Amanda giggled.

Milo sighed heavily.

"What's wrong?" Zack asked.

"I'm... nervous." he admitted.

"Hey..." Melissa put a hand on his shoulder. Her voice was quiet. "I'm sorry for mentioning anything. We don't have to win. We can try but if we don't, that's okay. I had a blast doing this thing for the entire month. I'm just glad we participated at all."

"Me too." Zack agreed. "We had ups and downs but... I think Friendship Games brought us even closer together. All of us."

"You guys are right." Milo said, still looking a bit down. "But we came so far... And I have to admit... I actually got invested into the idea that we might actually win. It's just... It would be nice to win, you know. It's a thing that doesn't happen to me often."

Melissa hugged him. Zack joined from the other side.

"We know." she said, quietly.

"Well..." Milo smiled faintly, putting his arms around their shoulders. "We started this together. Let's finish it together."

* * *

"You can now remove the blindfolds." the voice from the speakers said.

They did so, discovering that the room was dark anyway. Melissa leaned down and discovered a flashlight next to her foot. She picked it up and turned it on.

They were all chained to the walls of the room, by their ankles. The room seemed relatively empty, small and a little claustrophobic. There was a clock on the wall, above Milo's head, as well as a small hole in the wall between Bradley and Zack. Lydia stood next to a small safe with a 3 digit dial combination lock, while Amanda stood right next to door with the qwerty keyboard on them.

"I don't... feel so good." Zack admitted, leaning on the wall.

"Hey, Zack?" Melissa directed the light from the flashlight to shine on his face. "It's alright. It's just a task. And it's the last one too. We will get out of here in like, five minutes, and it will be over."

"Alright..." Zack took a few deep breaths. "Alright, I'm fine..."

"Melissa, would you shine on this clock, please?" Milo asked. "Thank you. Hm... The clock doesn't seem to be working and it doesn't show the right hour either. It shows 1:04 instead."

"Melissa?" Lydia asked. Melissa directed the light on the safe. "Thank you."

Lydia used the numbers 1, 0 and 4 to open the safe. There was a key inside. She used it to free her ankle, then started walking around the room, freeing everyone else.

"Hey, Brad?" Zack asked and pointed at the hole in the wall.

"Yeah, I'm not sticking my hand inside this thing. I only have this last one."

"Right, like they installed something in there that could hurt you." Zack rolled his eyes. He sticked his hand inside and screamed in pain.

"Zack!" Bradley yelled.

Zack started laughing.

"I'm just joking!" he chuckled. "Relax."

"Oh, I hate you so much, you make me so angry!" Bradley pushed Zack gently but he couldn't stop himself from smiling. Melissa directed the light on their faces. She was chuckling too.

"Nice acting, Zack!" Lydia gave him a thumbs up, freeing his ankle.

"Thanks!"

"Hey, Zack?" Melissa asked. "So what was in that hole?"

"Just some plastic bugs." Zack shrugged. "And this."

He was holding another flashlight. It had a letter "E" written on it. He couldn't turn it on - there was no battery inside.

"Okay, so this is what we have to do to get out of here." Amanda said. "Melissa, would you give us some light? Thank you. The riddle on the floor should reveal the code that opens the door but I'm having a hard time solving it."

There were six shapes, drawn with the white chalk on the floor. They were all representing something and Amanda already solved half of it - she put her blindfold on the last shape, and the clock from the wall on the third, round shape. Lydia put the key on the small shape, next to the clock.

Zack looked at the puzzle and put the useless flashlight on the first shape, then the bug on the second. The only shape left was resembling the other flashlight, but as the only source of light in the room, Melissa had to hold it so they could see anything.

"Melissa?" Bradley asked. "Give me that..."

He pulled the battery out of the flashlight and put into the other one. This light was purple.

"That's a blacklight!" he said, putting the first flashlight on the last shape. He used the blacklight to illuminate the objects on the floor. There was the letter "S" on the plastic bug, the letter "C" on the clock, the letter "A" on the key...

"The answer is 'escape'." he said and illuminated the keyboard.

Melissa whistled, impressed. Amanda was already typing the correct answer. The door opened and they all ran outside.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new record!" they heard the announcer's voice, almost drowned out by the audience. "4:58!"

"So did we... did we win?" Milo wheezed.

"I... think so?" Melissa put a hand on his shoulder. "At least we're best at this school. We still have to wait for the verdict from the other schools."

And so they sat back on their bench and waited.

"Hey, guys?" Milo looked at his friends. They all looked at him, smiling, so he smiled back. "Nice job, everyone."

"Are you still nervous?" Lydia asked.

"You have no idea."

"Don't worry." Bradley grinned. "There's literally no way someone would beat us! We were pretty incredible in there."

"You don't get it." Milo put a hand on his stomach. "Murphy's law didn't interrupt us at all. Something big is coming, I can feel it."

Melissa and Zack looked at each other, worried.

"We did our best, Milo." Amanda said. "And now it's over. There's nothing else for us to do, now we just have to wait."

"Right." Milo took a deep breath. "Let's wait..."

* * *

"And the winner of the Friendship Games is..." they heard the voice from the speakers.

Please, Murphy's law... Please, don't ruin this now... Please...

"...Milo Murphy and his friends from Jefferson County Middle School!"

Milo was just about to scream with happiness when suddenly a dimensional rift opened in the sky. Milo's happiness turned into rage in a matter of seconds.

"Aw, come on!" he yelled. "Can't I have a nice thing just this once? What the- We worked hard for this! My FRIENDS worked hard on this! COME ON! JUST LET US HAVE THIS!"

"Whoa, okay." Bradley blinked. "So you CAN be angry."

Everything went quiet, when a huge monster appeared, descending from the portal. A mass of pure ugliness, hovering in the air, above them all. It seemed like the whole world just stopped, no one dared to move or to make any sound. Milo felt Amanda taking his hand. Finally, the creature spoke.

"W̢͟h҉a̷̕t̶̴ ̴̧͞ar̕e̴ ͢y̨͡ơu̧ ͘wa̸įti͘͘n͏͠g̛͏͟ f͘͢o͞r̢͡? ͘͜S̕͜͝C͏R͝E͠A̢̛M̵͘!"̧̨҉

A couple of columns of black ozze shot down, few hitting the ground, one destroying the metal room, and the rest hitting the bleachers. Panic broke out. Everyone started yelling and running in different directions. Terrified Mr. Drako, reached for his phone, probably to call the police.

"Don't get separated!" Milo grabbed Zack with his free hand and started running, to get away from the monster.

A giant tentacle fell right in front of them, to stop them from escaping. Another, smaller tentacle grabbed Milo by his ankle and pulled back. He would've fallen, if it wasn't for Amanda and Zack, holding his hands.

"Co̶n͘g͡r͞atu͟la̢t̛ion͞s͝,͏ Mi͞lo M̢u̴rp̡h͘y! ̨Y͢ou won͡ m͜y̶ co̢n̨te̸st! W҉hy wo͢n'̕t ͝y͢ou co͝m̨e̵ w͠ith̶ m͞e ̨to c̕l̛aim҉ you̷r̕ ͞pr̴ize̢?"͘  
---  
  
"YOUR contest? AAAH!" Milo screamed when the monster pulled his leg harder.

He fell down on the ground this time. Amanda and Zack tightened their grips.

"͟St̷op͡ r̵esi̵sting̶,̡ t͢h͟i̧s̶ i̶s ̡what y͝ou͘ ͠w͢a͟nte͠d҉! ͏Y͟ou͏ ͏b͏eha҉vio͏u̡r is c͘omp͟l͠et̢el͢y͡ u͟n͡r͠easo̕na̛b͏l͏e͢...͜"͘  
---  
  
"Milo!" Melissa yelled, grabbing Zack's hand and pulling them both in the opposite direction. Lydia grabbed Amanda at the same time.

Melissa was furious, which Zack could clearly tell by how strong her grip was. Milo was lost due to time travel and aliens before. She was determined to not let that happen again. Whatever that monster wanted from him, he was NOT going to take him!

However, Milo's hands starting slipping away and there was nothing he could do about it.

"Leave him alone, you monster!" Bradley put his plant arm around Milo's waist and started pulling too. Zack and Amanda reapplied their grips on his forearms now.

"̛Ev͠e͜r͘y͏o͝ne̵'s ҉hold̕ing̨ t̸igh͟t͟?͜ The̴n͜ l̷et҉'͝s ̵g͏o..̶."̡  
---  
  
The monster pulled Milo's leg, for real this time. Everyone fell on the ground, screaming, as the creature dragged them on the ground for a while. The tentacle started raising slowly...

ZAP!

The limousine appeared, its tires cutting the tentacle in half. The monster screeched horribly. Milo breathed, watching the car stopping a few feet to his right. First, he heard a music. Second, he saw his friends, exiting the car.

 

_Oh! It would've been, could've been_

_Worse than it had even gone_

_Well, the car was on blocks_

_But I was already where I want_

_(It was impossible, we ran it good, we ran it good)_

 

"I hope we're not too late!" Dakota grinned.

"Into the limo, NOW!" Cavendish yelled. "All of you!"

Dakota jumped back behind the wheel, while Cavendish made sure all six kids entered the back of the car. He sat there with them.

"Oh, I hate time travel!" Bradley exclaimed, nervously, looking around the limo. "Time travel did THIS to me!" he raised his plant arm.

"And what exactly is that?" Cavendish asked and examined Bradley's arm. "Oh my, it seems to be some kind of time paradox. It is easily fixable, though."

"It IS?" Bradley's eyes went wide.

"In the future we have hospitals that take care of those sort of things. We can take you there. ...After all of this is over, of course. We need to become heroes first, if we ever want to go back to our times."

Bradley continued to stare at him.

"Hold on to your butts!" Dakota called out and stepped on the gas pedal.

"̴̨I͝ ̴̧w̴ǫ͠n͏'̡͡t͏̡͝ ̢͢l͞͡e̡t̵ ̷̶y̢ơu҉̢ ͞e̕s̵c͏a̶p̛͜e҉ th͝ȩ͝ ͞thi̴̢r̕d̡͜ ̨͞t̛i͠m̸̧҉e̴͝ ̡̕i͏n҉̶ ̶͝͠a̧ ̕̕͝r̶̡͟o̴͝w!̕͟"̨  
---  
  
Something big and black hit the windshield.

ZAP!

Dakota blinked. The monster was behind the cracked glass, staring at him with all his eyes. Dakota screamed shortly, realizing the monster made himself smaller and was currently time travelling with them. He turned the windshield wipers on, as his first instinct. As they were hitting the creature back and forth, the monster was letting out short screeches. Dakota noticed that their enemy looked... in pain. And the wipers weren't the ones causing that. It's more like... his whole body was boiling.

"He is affected by time travel." Dakota muttered. "HE IS AFFECTED BY-"

He didn't quite finish because the monster's tentacle shot through the broken window and wrapped itself around Dakota's throat.

"Ah. Karma." he grunted, starting to choke. "For breaking that window in the first place. I get it. Cav, help."

Cavendish grabbed the baseball bat and forcefully pressed it against the tentacle. It hissed, as if it was burning. The monster withdrew it back to his body, screeching. He then formed a fist and started hitting the windshield, making the crack bigger and bigger - okay, so maybe he was in a great pain, but he was still very dangerous. Dakota thought that maybe it was a good idea to stay in the time stream and wait for the monster to die, but that plan was out of the question now - the windshield finally broke. Dakota pressed the emergency button, to get out from the time stream faster.

ZAP!

It looked like they were in the city center. As soon as they arrived on the street, the monster rolled off the car, landing on the sidewalk and groaning. Dakota didn't wait for him to get up - he stepped on the gas pedal, to get as far away from him as it was possible. Bradley looked through the window and noticed that the monster was slowly crawling in their direction, already getting bigger.

"Alright, first things first." Cavendish said, looking around. "When are we?"

The limo passed by the poster advertising the Summer Rocks concert. Milo remembered it. He never went to this concert but he remembered it being a thing.

"Guys?" he said, his voice a little bit shaky. "This is the longest summer."


	11. The Longest Summer

"He is affected by time travel!" Dakota repeated, doing his best to drive safely, while also doing his best to escape the threat. He couldn't let the monster catch up to them. 

"But... why?" Cavendish asked.

"I don't know, he's from a different dimension, maybe time travel can't exist where he comes from, so his molecules freak out or something- Do I look like someone who would know WHY it works? What matters is that we finally know his one and only weakness!"

"Alright but... what do we do with that knowledge?"

"I don't know, you're the book-smart one! Think of something! Look..." he took a deep breath. "You take care of figuring out how to take the monster down. Be the hero you always wanted, and I will improvise to keep us all alive."

"Sounds good to me." Cavendish looked around, gathering notes and futuristic gadgets.

Dakota checked the mirrors. The monster was far behind them, but he was slowly gaining speed. Dakota started taking different turns to lose him. Finally, he turned into a dead end between two tall buildings and stopped the engine.

"I need your hairs again." he said, turning around in his seat and extending his hand.

"But..." Bradley started.

"He can smell your hair (I think), but he will follow me if I manage to confuse him. I just want to save your lives, PLEASE."

They all gave him a single hair from their heads. He hid them in his pocket.

"Wait here." he said and left the car.

They watched as he crossed the street and entered the fashion store.

"What is he up to now?" Cavendish muttered. "...Oh dear."

Dakota soon ran out, holding six child-sized mannequins. He stood with them in the middle of the road, stopping a car. He ran and quickly threw the mannequins at the back seats. An annoyed woman left the car, yelling at Dakota to go away. He completely ignored her - he walked passed her and took her seat behind the wheel. He gave the woman her purse and drove away, as fast as he could. The woman was still yelling at him, when the cashier ran out from the fashion store, screaming something about the man who stole their mannequins.

"Oh my gosh?" Lydia couldn't help but laugh.

ZAP!

Dakota appeared in the limo, behind the steering wheel.

"I'm back."

"What did you do?" Cavendish asked.

"I bought us some time." Dakota started the engine. Soon the limousine was on the street again. "The monster is following my past-self who's currently escaping Danville in a stolen car. We will do the same, but we're gonna drive in the opposite direction. The past-me will ran out of gas eventually and the monster will find out he's been conned. Cavendish, the plan?"

"I am working on it!"

"Whoa." Melissa commented. "But how did you zap yourself into the limo, just like that?"

"I have a pocket time machine on my wrist."

"Oh, so that's what it is!" Milo gasped. "That's so awesome!"

"Can I see it?" Melissa asked.

"Why?"

"Because Milo looks like he's about to explode and he's too nice to ask you. We just want to look at it."

Dakota looked at them in the mirror. Melissa was making doe eyes and Milo looked like he was too excited to even speak up. Those kids probably didn't even realize that they were in a grave danger - this was just another wacky adventure for them. But Milo's excitement was understandable - the pocket time machine was cutting-edge technology, from the future. Dakota couldn't say no to him.

"...Okay, fine. You can look at it for a short moment, just... don't use it."

"Yeah, yeah, we won't." Melissa leaned to take off the watch from his wrist. She brought it to Milo, so they could stare at it, in amazement.

Soon they left Danville behind. No one was really talking, as they weren't sure what to say. Dakota was focused on driving and Cavendish was focused on re-reading his own notes and correcting some of them. Milo and his friends were trying to not get in a way. They were sitting next to each other, looking through the windows in silence. The limo was driving past grassy hills for a while, before Dakota took a turn, into a path up the hill. Finally, they stopped at the top. Dakota turned around in his seat, waiting for any good news.

"Okay, so..." Cavendish sighed heavily. "We can't kill or hurt the monster in any significant way. The baseball bat doesn't do enough damage. It's great for self-defense but not really for the attack, since the monster has regenerative abilities. Our best bet is to trap it... We weren't sure how to do that before but... Uhh..."

"What is it?" Dakota asked.

"This is a stupid plan, it's extremely dangerous and... very, very, very illegal."

"What is it?" he repeated.

"We have to create a time explosion with the time grenades, to trap the monster in the past."

"Sounds good, let's do it."

"No, it doesn't sound good, Dakota. This... would destroy the timeline, at least this particular part of the timeline."

"What will it do, exactly?" Milo asked.

"Time grenades can literally destroy time." Cavendish explained. "If we destroy, let's say, this day, it will disappear from the timeline completely and it will never be back. We... tried to experiment with the grenades, to make them have a slightly different effect... We wanted to re-program them, to create the explosion that could cut chunks of time off. Uhh... How do I put this... I know it's complicated... Let's say that after this day there should be Saturday. So you wake up and it is indeed Saturday, but a couple of months later, or even a year later, though you haven't actually gotten any older nor you noticed any difference. Because the time between those days has been destroyed, or rather, cut off. We... we wanted to re-program the grenades so we could trap the monster in such chunk of time, without affecting the future. Again, this would only hurt him, because time travel is his weakness - the people and the environment would stay pretty untouched. Although... This will have... side effects. In easy words, what people would experience after such explosion, is a very long summer, sometimes with random days from other parts of the year. It would cause mass confusion-"

"This already happened." Amanda interrupted him. 

"What?"

"Yeah!" Milo agreed. "The longest summer. We already experienced it. And it was awesome!"

Cavendish had to process this.

"Are we..." he looked at Dakota. "Are we creating a stable time loop, for once?"

"Seems that way." he grinned. "Brick and Savannah did mention the details of the report were unclear because of some interference. And this might be it."

"...Well then! I... suddenly feel much more confident about this plan! But... there's one small catch."

"What is it?" Milo asked.

"I am not sure if we re-programmed the grenades well enough for this plan to work. We've been banished from the future, so we don't even have an access to any sources that we could check to see if we did this correctly..."

"Yeah..." Dakota scratched his neck. "It's a problem."

ZAP!

Everyone stared at Dakota. He was still there, and looked as surprised as everyone around. He glanced at his wrist and remembered that the watch wasn't there anymore.

"Wait..." Zack said. "Where's Melissa?"

ZAP!

She re-appeared back in the car.

"I am so HUNGRY!" she yelled. "It's been HOURS!"

"Protein candy bar?" Amanda asked, handing it to her.

"Yes, please, I love you!" Melissa got rid of the wrapper and sank her teeth in the bar.

"Melissa, what did you do?" Dakota asked, a little scared. They waited for her to finish chewing, but she immediately reached for another bar.

"I went to the future, since you guys can't." she answered, mouth full of food. "I went to the library and educated myself of the subject. Crack those grenades open, Cavendish, I know exactly what to do."

"I am so in love with her right now." Bradley muttered under his breath.

"Alright, let's get to work!" Cavendish rubbed his hands with excitement.

"Melissa, give me back the watch." Dakota reached out his hand. "I don't know if I should be disappointed or impressed. Either way... good job."

She gave the watch back to him, smiling. Dakota put it back on his wrist and checked the time.

"My past-self should ran out of gas any second now. The monster will come soon."

"Wait!" Amanda widened her eyes. "How can we be sure that the monster won't just pursue our past-selves?"

"He won't." Zack answered. "I wasn't living in Danville yet. If he wants our entire team... And if he really can smell our hair... then he will look for me."

"This makes me want to shave my entire head." Lydia admitted.

"You would look rad." Zack said. She giggled.

Dakota grabbed the baseball bat.

"Alright... I will distract the monster for as long as I can. You guys work on those grenades."

"Dakota!" Cavendish called out to him. "No stunts like the last time, okay? Just... be careful."

"I will."

"I want to help!" Milo exclaimed.

"No." Dakota knelt down, to be on his level. "I know you're able to do incredible things, Milo. But you are still a kid. It's my adult responsibility to keep you all safe. You will stay in the limo. All of you." he looked at the rest of the team, before he got up and left the car.

"I was born years before you!" Milo called out to him. "That technically makes me older!"

"Nice try, but no!" Dakota answered, walking away.

Milo looked at his friends. They were all looking at him, with the exception of Melissa and Cavendish - they were busy working. No one was saying anything. Milo pulled his knees up under his chin.

"I'm sorry I got us into this mess." he said quietly. "If it wasn't for Murphy's law..."

"This isn't your fault." Melissa interrupted him. She didn't stop working on the grenades though.

"Yeah, and don't give yourself all the credit." Bradley added, angrily. "We wouldn't be able to even enter this fake contest, if I declined your offer to join your team in the first place. You know it's true."

"Do you... regret your decision?" Milo asked, his voice still small.

Bradley didn't break eye contact. He was still furrowing his eyebrows when a tiny smile formed at his lips.

"I don't."

Milo smiled too.

* * *

Dakota was sitting alone in the tall grass. He was observing the monster, slowly crawling up the hill. That visit in the time stream really did a number on him. Good.

Finally, the monster started floating, with all the strength he could muster. He got bigger and stared at Dakota with all his eyes.

"I..͢. ͏r̷eal͢l̴y͢ ͞haţe ҉yo͞u̕."  
---  
  
"The feeling's mutual." Dakota answered, his voice calm. He stood up. "I am done running away from you. Let's settle this down once and for all. You can go back to your dimension and never come back. Or you can die."

"̛Le̡t̡'s be ̵rea҉so̴na̸bl̷e.̴ ̵The̸ ki̡ds aren't e͡v͟e͝n yoưrs͟.̷ ͏Ju̧st ͟g͞e͝t͜ o҉u̵t͢ of͘ m͢y̡ ̵w͠ay͝ ̴an͘d ̵you ͜wil̨l̨ ͝ne̶ver s̢ęe͡ ̢me͠ agai̸n͟."͠  
---  
  
Dakota raised his baseball bat.

"Die then."

* * *

"It started." Milo said, looking through the window. Dakota was fighting the monster at the other side of the hill. "...I can't just sit here and watch..."

Milo opened the door. Suddenly someone grabbed his wrist, preventing him from leaving. He turned around, surprised.

"What. Do you think. You're doing?" Bradley hissed.

Milo smiled, proud of himself for what he was about to say. He probably wanted to sound badass.

"I'm being more confrontational-"

"Forget what I said!" he interrupted him, his voice furious. "Do you WANT to die?"

"I'm going." he jerked his hand away. "You can't stop me."

"Bradley is right." Zack exclaimed. "You shouldn't go. Not alone at least. I'm going with you!" he jumped on his feet, smirking. "This monster is scary which is exactly the reason why you shouldn't face it alone. And before you say anything - you can't stop me either."

"Together?" Milo asked, smiling.

"Together."

"Wait, no..." Cavendish started but Milo and Zack already ran out. He couldn't do anything. He had to focus on the grenades. He quickly went back to work.

Suddenly Lydia got up as well, determination on her face.

"They need me too!" she exclaimed.

"Lydia, no!" Amanda grabbed her hand. "We have to stay here! You really don't have to go!"

"I know." Lydia smiled and her friend let her go. "...But I want to."

Lydia quickly turned away and ran towards the monster. Keeping a safe distance from him, she cleared her throat.

"I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory!" she recited. "When's it gonna get me? In my sleep? Seven feet ahead of me? If I see it coming, do I run or do I let it be? Is it like a beat without a melody?"

She jumped away before a small tentacle was able to grab her ankle.

"Not a fan of Broadway? Okey-dokey, let's try something else..." she cleared her throat again. "Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun the frumious Bandersnatch!"

"What is she doing?" Milo asked.

"Her best." Zack smiled.

Back in the limo, Amanda looked at Bradley and Melissa in sheer panic, then at Lydia again, then at Bradley and Melissa once more.

"I have to go after her!" she finally exclaimed. "She's my best friend! I'm sorry!"

"Oh, Dakota will not be happy about this." mumbled Cavendish, as Amanda ran away. He didn't stop working. He couldn't. "What now, Melissa?"

"Connect this wire here..."

Bradley stared at the fight outside.

Dakota was having a hard time. He not only had to distract the monster, he now also had to watch over four children, running around, thinking they were helping (although, Lydia actually was getting the job done - the monster seemed to be pretty distracted by her yelling). He also had to not die. But of course, Milo and his friends had no idea how Dakota felt at the moment - alone, tired and scared. What if he died on accident? There really was no room for mistakes here... This was hopeless... He stopped running for a moment to take a deep breath.

ZAP!

Suddenly he saw another Dakota and his heart stopped. Was it over for him? Did someone die in the other timeline? Did he just become the doomed Dakota? But then his other-self pointed a finger at him.

"I am Dakota from the future!" he grinned. "You are not doomed! You have to keep fighting to become me in a few minutes!"

"W-What? What are you doing here?"

"Providing moral support, since you obviously need it! You can't give up! It gets better, it really does!" he laughed, knowing full well how comical that must have looked like. He gave his past-self a big thumbs up.

"Oh... okay! Yeah... you know what?" he chuckled too, with tears on his face. "You're right! It does get better! Let kick some butts. both of us! I will protect the girls..."

"And I will protect the boys! Let's do this!"

Bradley watched as one Dakota ran to Amanda and Lydia, while the other one ran to Zack and Milo. They both swinged their baseball bats as if they were wielding swords, cutting the monster's tentacles off. Milo, Zack, Lydia and Amanda were running around the monster, distracting him... It seemed like the situation was under control... but something wasn't right. Milo was out there, being a hero, while Bradley was here, hiding in the limo, doing nothing...

Melissa noticed his expression and touched his shoulder. He flinched and looked at her, surprised.

"Bradley? You gotta use that big mouth of yours and do what you do best."

"Which is?"

"You get out there and complain like your life depends on it!"

She pushed him away, making him fall out from the limo. A wide smile slowly appeared on his face. He got up and approached the monster.

"Do you really think we would ever go with you willingly?" he yelled at him. "We're teenagers, we don't listen to anyone! Besides, what even are you? Some kind of a frog or an octopus or... you know what, I can't even compare you to anything! You big ugly sack of s-"

He didn't quite finish - one of the tentacles swept at his legs, making him fall on his back. After he re-opened his eyes, he saw Zack's face above his own.

"Hey, Brad, you good?" he asked.

"Yeah..."

"Get up then!" he offered him a hand up from the ground. "You can't give up yet! Remember our weekend? Building a fort? Our visit at the zoo? At the beach? The rollercoaster? The Love Handel concert?

"We have never done any of those things together, what are you TALKING about?"

"Not yet! But we can do them in the future, so come on! Don't leave me hanging!

"Yeesh, fine!" he grabbed his hand and stood up.

"It gets easier once you realize you have to look out for those tentacles!" Amanda called out. "Don't stop moving!"

* * *

Melissa kept working on the grenades but she was getting distracted by what was going on outside. Suddenly her eyes went wide, as she realized something.

"I..." she started, staring at the monster. "Um..."

"Go." Cavendish smiled.

"Are you sure?"

"You already told me what I'm supposed to do. I have everything I need right here. Go. I can take it from here."

She nodded and left the car.

"Bradley!" she yelled, running towards him. "I've found it! I know the bright side!"

All her friends, including two Dakotas, were on the other side of the hill - she was all alone in the open. The monster shot a tentacle, grabbing her ankle and making her fall. She screamed, trying to grab onto something and pulling out the grass, as the monster dragged her on the ground.

"NO!" she heard Bradley's voice.

She managed to turn around. He was running until the tentacle was close enough. He raised his plant arm and slashed it down, like a whip. It cut through the ooze like a knife through butter. The monster screeched horribly but at least Melissa was now free.

"Are you alright?" he asked, fear in his eyes. He fell onto his knees, getting closer to her.

"Bradley, I've found it!" she grabbed his face.

"You found what?"

"The bright side! Your arm! It's a time paradox!"

Bradley looked slowly at his plant arm, then at the tentacle severed from the monster. It was melting on the ground. A tiny smile started forming on Bradley's lips.

"You are probably the only human in the whole world who has a time paradox for a limb!" Melissa kept going. "When you think about it, it's actually amazing! It doesn't suck! It's unique and cool!"

"You... you actually did find the bright side..." Bradley whispered, then looked at her. Tears appeared in his eyes. "Does it mean we're friends now?"

"What!" Melissa laughed. "Bradley! Of course we're friends! Look around! We all are your friends! After everything that happened, how can you even doubt it?"

"I have... terrible trust issues." he laughed, crying.

She wiped his tear with her thumb.

Another tentacle shot into their direction. Bradley swinged his arm, destroying it instantly, still looking into Melissa's eyes. She let go of his face when he slowly turned his head, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Excuse me!" he yelled at the monster. "We're having a conversation here!"

Melissa was observing Bradley's face - he looked annoyed now as if the monster was just a mild inconvinience for him. She couldn't help but laugh. He chuckled too.

"Why don't you stay here and relax?" he asked her, standing up. "I will keep you safe."

"I don't know... I don't want to be useless."

"Useless? Didn't you just zap yourself to the future for a couple of hours to get the information we needed?"

"I did but... Milo..."

"Look at him. He's doing just fine. He can take care of himself. You're not his mom, you know. You don't have to protect him all the time."

She observed Milo and Zack for a while. They really were doing just fine. She then looked at Bradley who just used his arm like a whip again, cutting off another tentacle.

"Leave her alone!" he yelled. "Don't you know who this is? That's the future journalist/queen of the universe, you clod!"

Melissa lay down on the grass, looking at the clouds and the blue sky. It was a beautiful day. And she had to admit - it really was nice to be the one who was protected, for a change.

In the meantime, Milo was in the middle of yelling at the monster.

"You really think you can bring us down? We won your stupid contest by working together! And you are alone! Your contest was fake, yes, but our friendship is real!"

"̛Yo̷u ͝are͝ curs̸e҉d͡ ͘wi̕t͢h̸ ҉ba̡d̛ lu҉ck! ͘You ͜c͝an͢'͡t ̛w͝i̕n̸ th҉i̢s ͞f͏ight͢!"͢  
---  
  
"Oh, I don't have bad luck! I have Murphy's law. That's different. Sometimes it makes my life more difficult, it's true. But sometimes it comes in handy! But I don't expect you to understand. And don't get me wrong - I really hope you win. I've been rooting for you this entire time."

"Y̶ou'v͝e̷ b̧een rǫotin͘g... ̡for ͠t͞h̡e ͜e̡nem̧y?̸"̧  
---  
  
Milo smirked and didn't say anything else.

"Dakota!" Cavendish called out, leaving the car. He was holding five time grenades, connected by a wire.

ZAP!

One of the Dakotas disappeared with a grin. The other one walked up to his friend.

"The grenades are ready." Cavendish glanced at his partner and smirked. "Let's destroy time."

"Awesome." Dakota raised his weapon. "Would you care for a game of baseball, Cav?"

"With pleasure." Cavendish then looked at Milo and his team. "EVERYONE, BACK TO THE CAR!"

As the kids ran inside the limo, Dakota and Cavendish walked a few feet from each other and readied themselves.

"Use that strength of yours." Dakota said. "I want to send those granades as far from the ground as possible."

"Don't miss."

"I won't." Dakota winked.

Cavendish grinned. He activated the grenades and put all the strength he got into that throw. Which was a lot.

"Long... live... the longest of SUMMERS!" Dakota swinged.

The grenades connected with the bat's surface. It sent them spinning, up in the air, in the monster's direction. At the same time the baseball bat slipped through Dakota's fingers and went flying, across the field, disappearing into the grass.

"Oh, oops..."

He didn't have enough time to run and get it. Behind him was the limo full of people that he had to safely deliver to the future.

Cavendish took the passenger seat, while Dakota jumped behind the wheel.

"Hold on to your butts!" he yelled, stepping on the gas pedal.

Behind them, just like in slow-motion, the grenades went off, right into the monster's many faces. Time around him started collapsing, brutally sucking him out of existance. The sound of hundreds of nails scratching a blackboard got to them, as they were half-zapped in the time stream. The explosion managed to reach the back of the car, causing the limo to crack in half. The back of the car fell off and disappeared in the time stream with a loud ZAP. Bradley, who was on the crack when it happened, slipped away and fell down with a scream. Melissa tried to catch him but she lost her footing and fell down after him. ZAP! ZAP!

"Melissa!" Zack yelled, jumping after her. ZAP!

"Cavendish, take the wheel." Dakota mumbled, looking at all of this in the mirror. He struggled to un-belt himself, with his hands shaking and started climbing at the back of the car.

"Lydia, no!" Amanda yelled when her best friend jumped after Zack. ZAP! She launched herself after her. ZAP!

Milo jumped off, determination on his face. But he didn't quite make it - he felt someone grabbing his vest from behind. He looked up and he saw Dakota's terrified face.

"Let me go! I have to go after my friends!"

"No! Milo, are you crazy?! We don't know when you'll land, I won't be able to find you!"

"You will find me at the baking competition!"

"What? How do you know that?"

"Because it already happened! Just trust me! You have to let me go. ...You would jump too, after Cavendish."

Dakota stared right into his eyes. A very long second passed before he winced and let him go. Milo fell down, smiling, before he disappeared with a loud ZAP. Dakota sat down, staring into the nothingness. The floating clocks were all around him.

"It got awfully quiet back there!" Cavendish noticed, breaking the silence. "Dakota? Is everything alright? What happened?"

"Well." Dakota tried to gather his thoughts. "Our kids got scattered across time and space."


	12. Rewind

ZAP!

Milo found himself in the empty classroom. Everything was ready for the baking competition. This was it. This was the moment when his past-self got a confirmation about his theory. Now all he had to do was to focus and recreate everything just as he remembered it.

Suddenly, he heard voices outside the door. He panicked and jumped under the table.

"Your task is to bake something together." he heard Mr. Drako's voice. "Choose something from the cookbook. Ready, set... Go!"

"Oh, I see. Choosing something is part of this task. We gotta decide together quickly."

"But there are so many options!"

"Alright, alright... What food from this cookbook is the fastest one to make?"

"The brownies." Milo answered from under the table.

"Are you sure Milo?"

"Huh?" his past-self said.

"We're making the brownies then. I mean... as long as that's okay with the rest of you."

"It is! Let's not waste time!"

Amanda started telling everyone what to do. Milo then remembered something important that was about to happen. He readied himself. He noticed the falling egg and quickly caught it, extending his hand from under the table. He put it on the floor and retrieved his arm back, before he was seen. His past-self picked up the egg, intrigued.

This is when the doubled Murphy's law started to make itself known. The flour landed on the floor, along with the cupboard and everything in it. He heard the window breaking. Milo started to get nervous. He couldn't stay here any longer or else the situation might got worse. Where's Dakota, he should be here already!

"I can't find the salt."

"Whoa. Murphy's law kicked in strongly and very suddenly today, huh?"

"Yeah. It's like there's two Milos in one room."

"Um..." the past Milo started and the present Milo smiled. He knew that his past-self knew.

Lydia screamed shortly and landed on the floor. Luckily she didn't spot Milo, hinding behind the tablecloth.

"This is fine." Amanda took few deep breaths. "We can still make it. This is nothing for us."

Milo heard the door falling flat on the floor, then Dakota's unsure voice.

"Good evening. Sorry for the door, I don't know what happened..."

"Murphy's law."

"Ah, alright then. Uhh... This is gonna sound weird but... have you seen the Milo from the future?"

This was it! He crawled from under the table, hearing gasps all around him. He turned around to look at his past-self.

"So it's true then?" his past-self asked.

"Yup."

"And Bradley?"

"No clue."

"Alright..." he looked worried for a second, before he smirked. "I gotta say... that was kind of sloppy. I could tell you were here pretty much from the start. It's like you weren't trying to hide at all. Am I really that bad at hiding?"

"I knew you'd figure it out anyway, because of this doubled Murphy's law mess, so trying to hide would be pointless. Oh, and don't worry." he smiled. Dakota was already dragging him outside the classroom. "It will make much more sense in the future!"

They left the classroom and walked through the hallway.

"Milo, talking with our past-selves is a big no no." Dakota said quietly. "I know you didn't know but it's very dangerous, especially when they have no idea what's going on."

"No, no, it's okay!" Milo grinned. "This is how I knew what to do in the first place. I had to confirm my own theory!"

"Wait..." Dakota scratched his head. "What do you mean?"

"I know exactly when the rest of my friends landed." he beamed. "Let me tell you all about it..."

* * *

ZAP!

Amanda found herself in the empty classroom. She noticed a table with the jigsaw puzzle box on it and she suddenly understood what day it was. But something was not right. This was not the puzzle they were solving that day.

She opened the box and started checking the puzzle pieces, out of sheer curiosity. She soon realized that the puzzle it was incomplete - the fourth corner was missing for sure, she couldn't spot it anywhere.

"Murphy's law." she whispered.

They had the wrong puzzle on the table! Amanda quickly checked the cupboard. Aha! There it is! The same jigsaw puzzle she gave for the charity! She put it on the table instead. She was just picking up the box with the faulty puzzle when she hesitated. Was she breaking the rules? Or was she doing the right thing for creating a stable time loop? Was it possible to do both of those things at the same time?

Suddenly someone started opening the door to the classroom. It was Milo. Their eyes met. She held her breath. He immidiately took a step back and closed the door.

"Wait, before we go in there..." he said, clearly wanting to create a diversion. "I have to ask about something, before I forget! Zack! How did your weekend with Bradley go?"

Amanda ran and hid inside the classroom closet, with her heart beating extremely fast.

Hoping they wouldn't find her here, she put the box away and sat on the floor, thinking of what to do next. Luckily, it didn't took long when she heard muffled Dakota's voice.

"Hi, everyone. Don't mind me, I just have places to go."

"Hi, Dakota. What's with your hair?"

"Thanks, I like it too!"

He entered the closet and closed the door behind him.

"Let's go." he whispered, extending his hand.

She took it.

ZAP!

* * *

ZAP!

Lydia found herself next to the open window, outside of the building, standing on the small ledge, hugged to a wall, a few feet above the ground.

"Well, that's exciting." she gasped.

She dared to peek into the classroom through the open window. Everyone was blindfolded except for Milo and Mr. Drako. But since they were turned around from the window, no one has noticed her.

Suddenly, Lydia saw her past-self breaking the glass. That past Lydia looked super miserable. There was no way she would just leave her like that. It was finally the time she did something just for herself.

She started climbing inside the classroom. She peeked at everyone, to make sure that no one has heard her entering. She looked at Amanda and the food tray she was holding and... her heart stopped. The tray's surface was reflective and she could see Milo's face very clearly in it. And he was also looking straight at her. Their eyes met. She held her breath.

"Don't worry, Lydia, I'm sure there are more glasses in the cupboard." he said, still staring at her. He glanced at the cupboard behind Mr. Drako, then at her. At the cupboard, and at her again.

She nodded and walked up to the cupboard behind their teacher's back. The biggest challenge now was to make sure Mr. Drako wouldn't hear her. But she knew that the cupboard door would probably creak if she tried to open it. How should she approach this?

"Reach your hand up and a little bit to the right... Watch out!"

All the shelves decided to suddenly fall down. A terrible sound of dozens of glasses breaking all at once filled the room. Everyone who was blindfolded screamed. Lydia chose this moment to quickly open the cupboard, take the one and only glass she found inside, put it on the counter and escape through the window. She stood outside on the ledge, hugged to a wall, same as before.

"What was that?"

"Lydia, are you okay?"

"I'm... fine..."

"It's not your fault, Lydia. It was the Murphy's law."

"How about I... stop the clock so you children can start again after we... clean the mess?"

"No, no, we can still do it! Oh! Lydia! There's one last glass on the counter behind me!"

Lydia smiled. Suddenly she noticed Dakota, standing below, on the ground. He was looking up at her.

"Jump." he extended his arms. "I will catch you."

Ah, the trust fall. Lydia liked that exercise.

She jumped.

ZAP!

* * *

ZAP!

Zack found himself under the wooden platform. The quiz show was in the middle of happening.

"Taekwondo." he heard Melissa's voice.

No way. It can't be...

He started crawling, to be underneath his past-self. Zack remembered it very well. This was the exact moment of his hesitation.

"It IS Zanzibar, don't worry." he said out loud.

"Zanzibar." his past-self repeated.

This was great! He could now help his friends with the questions he was supposed to answer in the first place. He continued to crawl, until he found himself between Lydia and Bradley. He waited for a while, and then...

"Guys." he heard Melissa's voice. "I can't take any band questions, I don't feel very well educated on the subject and I'm afraid I'm gonna answer wrong."

"I can take it." Milo offered.

"Absolutely not." Amanda stopped him. "Only you can take on those time travel questions, Milo. You gotta focus on them."

"Come on, guys. The answer is Lindana!" Zack whispered loudly.

"I'll take it. You can take my space questions instead, Melissa." Bradley suggested. "The answer is Lindana."

Zack rolled his eyes and shook his head in disbelief. He then waited some more, until...

"Groundhog Day Loop." Milo answered. "That was my last question."

There was a short pause.

"I think I can take it..." said Lydia.

She was hesitating. She didn't know the answer.

"Bowling for soup!" Zack whispered loudly.

"Um... Bowling for soup?"

It was the correct answer. She sighed with a relief.

"Saturn." Melissa said a moment later.

This was it, the last remaining question, from the band names category. Zack already opened his mouth to say it out loud, when...

"Love Handel." Bradley answered, without his help.

Huh. Bradley actually knew this one. Zack smiled. They really should go to their concert together, it could be fun.

Zack heard his friends leaving the platform. He wondered if he's gonna be stuck here forever, when suddenly...

ZAP!

Dakota appeared, laying on the ground, right next to him.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Could be better, but eh. Could also be worse."

ZAP!

* * *

ZAP!

Melissa found herself in the forest.

She noticed two bullies trying to prepare a trap - a giant mothman doll they were struggling to attach to a tree. The boys noticed her appearing.

"Who are you?"

Melissa raised her fists. She looked terrible and she felt the same way. She just got thrown across time and space just because she didn't manage to grab Bradley's arm before he fell. She was hungry, tired, angry and she really wanted to finally hit something.

"I'm the mothman." she growled.

"Right. If you think we're scared of some girl-"

She punched him hard, right in the face. The other bully tried to kick her but she jumped, landed on his feet, grabbed him by his arm and used his own weight to throw him on the ground. Then she tried to punch the first one again but he dodged her fist, holding his bleeding nose.

"Let's get out of here!" he yelled.

They both ran away, without looking back.

Melissa noticed that all the numbers written on ground were destroyed. She immediately got to work. She threw the mothman doll into the bushes, grabbed a stick and wrote all the numbers again, just as she remembered it.

After she finished, she heard someone approaching. She panicked and jumped into the bushes, right next to the mothman doll. She then heard her own voice.

"What is this?"

"I'm not sure. Let's count them!"

"One, two, three... Twelve."

"I see twelve also. Do you think that's all there is?"

"Do you want me to check if there's nothing else, hidden in the bushes?"

Milo glanced at the bushes Melissa was hiding in. Their eyes met. She held her breath.

"...No. Let's go back. I think this is what Mr. Drako wanted us to find. We shouldn't waste time."

And so they ran back to meet with the rest of the team.

Melissa sighed heavily and got out of the bushes.

ZAP!

She turned around. Dakota was standing nearby. She grinned and walked up to him.

ZAP!

* * *

"It all started when I noticed another Melissa in the forest." Milo explained. "I thought it was weird but I didn't want to interact with her, since I figured that some kind of time loop was taking place. Then nothing happened for a while, until Lydia told me that Zack told her the right answer at the quiz show and I knew for a fact that he wasn't saying anything. So I figured he was hidden there somewhere, time travelling as well. At the end of that week I was trying to help two Lydias at once which was... kind of weird and caused the entire cupboard to fall down because of the Murphy's law but I think everything worked out in the end. This is when I started theorizing that my entire team is time travelling. And sure enough, on Monday I spotted Amanda switching the jigsaw puzzle boxes. I had to create a diversion so she wouldn't get caught. And then, that is today, I guess, I met myself. You see, I HAD to talk to my past-self, to confirm my theory. ...So yeah, I saw them all." Milo finished. "All except Zack, that is. He really can stay hidden if he wants to. But uh... Bradley... I just have no clue. I have no idea when he landed. I'm so worried, he hates time travel and he could be anywhen!"

"Don't worry, Milo. If I time this correctly, my future-self will tell me when to find him."

"Oh, good." he sighed, relieved.

"You know..." Dakota seemed really impressed. "You are really good at this time travel stuff. Wouldn't you like to become a professional one day? Think about it."

Milo beamed.

ZAP!

* * *

ZAP!

Bradley found himself outside the school. He must have landed right in the middle of the swarm of butteflies because they were eveywhere - escaping in every single direction. Okay, so he knew where he was but he still had no idea WHEN he was. It was making him incredibly mad and confused.

Then, Mort and Chad exited the school. They were talking with each other when suddenly Mort noticed Bradley and called out to him.

"Hey, Bradley! I'm gonna participate in the Friendship Games! Do you want to be in my team?"

Bradley's heart stopped. In this one moment he saw it all. Milo asking Bradley if he wants to be in his team. Holding hands with Lydia and Melissa. His walk through the forest with Amanda. Melissa punching him. The truth booth. The sleepover at Milo's house. The weekend he spent with Zack. The creation of the longest summer. It all started or ended right HERE.

"No." he finally answered. "I am already in Milo's team."

"You?" Chad raised his eyebrows. "Bradley Nicholson? In one team with Milo Murphy?"

Bradley swallowed, feeling the planet Earth slowly turning under his feet. He could hear the entire swarms of butterflies lifting off, flying in different directions. And yet, he answered without really thinking about it. It's not that he didn't have a free will. It's just after everything that happened, he didn't WANT to answer differently.

"Yes. Yes, I am."

"Oh, alright then." Mort shrugged. "Considering that Zack is probably also in the same team with Milo, I can't enter their team anymore. Chad, can I join yours?"

"Sure."

Bradley started slowly backing out, then turned around and ran away without looking back.

ZAP!

He ran into Dakota, who appeared on the sidewalk right before him.

"Gotcha." Dakota grabbed his arm.

ZAP!

* * *

Cavendish and Dakota were standing in Milo's backyard.

"Milo said he's going to be at the baking competition." Dakota said, setting his watch on the right date. "So I'm gonna do a quick jump to see if he was right."

"Please be careful."

Their eyes met.

"I will."

ZAP!

Cavendish waited for exactly five seconds.

ZAP! The first Dakota and Milo showed up. ZAP! The second Dakota and Amanda showed up. ZAP! The third Dakota and Lydia showed up. ZAP! The fourth Dakota and Zack showed up. ZAP! The fifth Dakota and Melissa showed up. ZAP! The last Dakota and Bradley showed up at the end.

"Was she really in the classroom closet?" the first Dakota asked.

"Yup." the second Dakota responded.

ZAP! The first Dakota disappeared.

"You're going to need to go outside the school and catch her." third Dakota said.

"Alright." the second Dakota responded and disappeared with a loud ZAP!

"He's under the platform." the fourth Dakota said. "Aaand into the forest I go!"

ZAP! ZAP! The third and fourth Dakotas disappeared.

"So when was Bradley hiding?" the fifth Dakota asked.

"Right after the Friendship Games were announced. Outside the school. He will be running away, though." answered the last one.

"Got it." the fifth Dakota disappeared in the last ZAP!

"And here I am!" the last ramaining Dakota laughed, walking up to Cavendish and hugging him.

"So, is it over?" Cavendish asked.

"It's over, baby! We did it! We defeated the monster and came back in one piece!"

"We... we did it!" his friend repeated. "Ha! W-We did it!

Cavendish screamed with happiness, hugged his partner, raised him above the ground with ease and twirled. They both started laughing loudly.

"We did it!" Milo called out.

"Group hug!" Lydia yelled.

They all ran into each other, hugging and laughing. But this time around, Bradley was not screaming in surprise.

"We all changed something in the past, right?" Milo asked. "We all have been dealing with the Murphy's law from behind the shadows! I was under the table during the baking competition. But you all knew that."

"I swapped the jigsaw puzzle box for the one I knew how to solve!" Amanda admitted. "I had to! The other one didn't have all the pieces! Besides I was creating a stable time loop! ...Right?"

"How do you feel about breaking the rules in favor of creating the time loop?" Milo asked her. She grabbed his shoulder.

"When can we do this again?" she grinned, making him laugh.

"I put the last remaining glass on the counter so my past-self could pick it up it!" Lydia exclaimed.

"I was under the platform during the quiz show. I told you the right answers to my questions." Zack added.

"I punched the forest bullies." Melissa grinned. "And fixed the puzzle Mr. Drako left for us. ...Mr. Drako! Oh, gosh, I kinda want to like, buy him some flowers or something. Poor guy had no idea the contest was fake. He was doing his best and I really want to thank him for that!"

"Flowers are a great idea." Amanda agreed. "I want to pay for them."

"Me too." Lydia agreed.

"Me three." Zack nodded.

"And you, Bradley?" Milo asked. "What did you change in the past?"

Bradley sighed heavily and told them the truth. They all smiled and hugged him tighter.

"Don't act like it's a big deal!" he said. "I had no choice!"

"Yes, you haaad!" Milo teased. "You could still change the timeline!"

"No! I hate time travel and I don't understand it!"

"I told you how the butterfly effect works, you KNEW that whatever you were going to do or say would affect the future!"

"No!"

"And you still decided to create a stable time loop! It was a choice you've made! I'm so proud of you!"

"No!"

"You did it because you looove uuus..." Milo teased.

"Yes, okay, fine! I did it because! Because you're my friends! I didn't want to lose that!"

"Aww..." they all said.

"We're gonna be best friends forever!" Bradley continued, furrowing his eyebrows. "Is that what you wanted me to say?"

"I never said I want you to say anything." Milo laughed.

Bradley sighed deeply, defeated.

"Hey, you!" Cavendish suddenly called out to him. "Boy! Bradley, was it? Do you still want to get rid of that paradox?"

Bradley looked at his plant arm, thinking. He thought about the bright side. He then remembered how much attention he got at the sleepover. How Milo compared it to Murphy's law, making it easier for him to understand.

"I... I will hold on to it for now." he said, hugging it.

"Wait, what day is it?" Milo's eyes went bigger.

"Saturday morning." Cavendish answered. "The big finale of the Friendship Games was yesterday.

"Oh, I gotta tell my parents I'm okay!"

"Oh, me too!" Zack nodded. "We all do, let's go!"

As they all started to walk away in a hurry, Bradley grabbed Melissa's hand. She looked at him, surprised and he let her go immediately. His heart was beating so fast, it hurt.

"I..." he started. "Um..."

He knew that everyone was staring at him but he didn't care. He leaned forward and left a kiss on Melissa's cheek.

"One noncommittal kiss, you know, for winning the bet." he stared at his feet.

"Oh! Right..."

"It doesn't mean anything else."

"Of course it doesn't, you dork." he heard her chuckling.

He took a deep breath and looked at her. She was smiling. He smiled too, feeling much better now.

"I should have seen this coming." he admitted. "You always win those."

Suddenly Dakota gasped loudly.

"Oh, no, Milo! Your baseball bat! I promised I would return it!"

"What happened to it?"

"I lost it somewhere during the longest summer."

"Ah, I wouldn't worry about it." Milo smiled. "I think my dad will find it eventually."

"...Oh!" Dakota's eyes got bigger. "So that's why the baseball bat was so good against the monster! It was the bootstrap paradox! Just like the peach!"

"Yes." Milo smiled. Maybe he really was good at this whole time travel business. "Just like the peach."


	13. Epilogue

It was summer at last. Lydia just ran into Bradley who was sitting on his bike, waiting on the parking lot of the Googolplex Mall.

"Hi, Bradley." Lydia waved. "Whatcha doin'?"

"Nothing much. I'm checking out my arm while waiting for Melissa to show up."

"How is it? Your arm, I mean."

"Pretty good, if I do say so myself."

His plant arm really was looking better and better. Even since that thumb-like branch showed up, he wasn't expecting anything good to come out of it, but as it turned out, the vine was growing into something resembling a hand. As if it remembered how it looked like before and was now returning to that state. It had four fingers instead of five but Bradley wasn't complaining - it actually looked pretty radical.

"I have to go and buy something for the trip I've got planned, but... we're gonna meet at Milo's place later, right?" Lydia asked.

"You know it! ...Oh, since you're going to the mall, would you buy some snacks for me?"

"Nope. Don't feel like it." Lydia winked and walked away. "See ya later!"

Bradley chuckled silently. After another couple of minutes, Melissa finally showed up on her bike.

"Green shirt?" she asked.

"Um..." he glanced down for a second. "Yeah."

The shirt wasn't just green - it had short sleeves too. Bradley figured that if the plant arm was going to stay, he was going to embrace that. No more shirts covering up his forearm. ...Unless it was too cold for that, obviously.

"It suits you."

"So I've heard. Thanks. So!" he clapped his hands. "We're racing to Milo's house, right?"

"Yup." Melissa radied her bike. "The loser buys the winner ice cream."

"Oh, you're ON!"

"...Hey, Bradley?" she asked.

Her tone was suddenly very different and it made Bradley raised his eyebrows, waiting for her to continue. She wanted to tell him that she was proud of how far he's come. But just by looking at his appearance, she knew that he was already aware of his own accomplishments. So she decided to tell him something that she wasn't sure if he knew about. She smiled gently.

"I'm just... I'm really glad we're friends."

The smile he gave her back was genuine.

"Me too."

They were looking at each other for a moment when suddenly he rode off on his bike.

"I still won't let you win, though!" he yelled, not looking back, laughing out loud.

"Dang it- Hey!" Melissa furrowed her eyebrows and raced after him, chuckling as well. "That's cheating!"

* * *

Dakota hasn't seen future Danville in such a long time, it almost stopped feeling real to him. They arrived there, just as the agency figured out who saved the timeline from the monster. They were recognized as heroes, of course. However they've broken several rules while saving the world. Again. There were going to be... consequences.

As their fate was intensely discussed (for a few days now), they were allowed to stay in the futuristic apartament for the time being. Cavendish was in his bedroom, sitting in the armchair, looking outside the window, observing flying cars and lost in his thoughts. Suddenly, Dakota entered the room and threw a history book onto a desk. With a huge smile on his face, he opened it and flipped through the pages, finally stopping and pointing at something.

"Here!" he exclaimed.

Cavendish had no choice but to stand up and see what he meant. He rolled his eyes and walked up to him, intrigued. He got through a couple of lines and covered his mouth with his hand, his heart almost stopping. NOTHING would compare to seeing his own name mentioned in a history book. It seemed like the author described him in a positive light, too.

"You did it, Cav! You're a hero!" his partner grinned at him.

"Um, excuse me, whose name is that, right there, next to mine?" Cavendish asked, pointing at the text and smirking. "You're a hero too. We did this together."

"I guess." Dakota shrugged. He then hesitated for a short moment. "So... how are you feeling?"

There was a pause and Dakota felt the mood in the room changing from joyful to tense. Not... what he was expecting.

"I'm happy..." Cavendish answered carefully but without much conviction. "I think?"

Dakota was just looking at him so Cavendish kept going.

"I mean, of course I'm happy, this is everything I ever wanted! ...Right? This is my dream finally coming to life and I'm really happy that I finally achieved my goal... But... I just feel like I'm missing something here."

They both looked in different directions, thinking the exact same thing, none of them daring to say it out loud. Dakota folded his arms, feeling slightly sick. Finally, Cavendish broke the silence.

"Dakota, I... uh..."

"You don't have to explain yourself." he interrupted him, his tone flat. "You're not fully happy, I get it. Sometimes we do our best to be happy but it doesn't always work out. What we want isn't always what we need, right? That's like, the point of every movie ever."

"Right. But... Personally I think that achieving what we want is just as important. Besides, our wants and needs are often one and the same thing. Oh, and I wasn't going to explain myself, I just wanted to thank you." Dakota gave him the side-eye. "For helping me. Becoming a hero. It was very important to me and I'm glad that you were... there for me. Always. I mean it."

Cavendish smiled gently. Dakota made a mistake and looked right into his electric, cyan eyes. They were pulling him like a magnet and he knew that there was no way he would be able to break their eye contact now. The nauseousness he was feeling a second before turned into something else - a feeling he could no longer ignore, no matter how hard he tried. If wants and needs were often one and the same thing, there was something he really needed and wanted to try, and he knew that he had to do it right now, or else he would never forgive himself. He took a step forward, then another, slowly closing the distance between them. Cavendish wasn't backing off but his smile slowly disappeared.

"Well..." Dakota said. "The question is... what your next goal is gonna be. And how can I help you achieve it."

"I... do have something in mind already, actually." he answered, watching him getting closer.

"What is it?" Dakota whispered.

"Um." Cavendish blinked.

Dakota's face was very close now. A grey streak decorated his brown, curly hair. With his hands shaking a little, Cavendish took off his partner's shades. Dakota didn't stop him nor did he break eye contact. Cavendish put the shades on the desk, staring into his partner's dark eyes, stunned. They were so beautiful... A grin slowly appeared on Dakota's face as he raised his hands to cup the nape of Cavendish's neck.

Impulse took over and they both leant in at the same time. The kiss was soft at first before it became more enthusiastic - the explosion of passion they had for each other, the passion they've been accumulating throughout all these years. They broke the kiss only for a short moment, laughing against their mouths.

Their hearts were racing as Cavendish picked Dakota up. They both fell onto the bed and continued from here.

* * *

Milo and Amanda were preparing everything for the picnic party, in Milo's backyard. Milo was telling her about all the cool stuff he wanted to do during summer, while they were carrying all kinds of snacks and putting them onto the picnic blanket.

"Milo?" Amanda interrupted him, her tone sad.

"Yes?"

"I... have to tell you something. I won't be around... for most of the summer."

"Oh." he looked at her, surprised. "Well... where are you going?"

"During the Friendship Games I realized... I wasn't a very good friend to Lydia. I feel like she always was there for me but it was often... one-sided, and..." she sighed. "I really want to make up for it. So now I'm doing something big for her. We're going on a long trip together, just her and me, best friends forever. ...And my parents of course, since..." she giggled. "I can't drive."

"That's... really cool!" Milo smiled.

"But... we won't see each other for a month or more. I guess what I'm trying to say is that... I'll miss you, Milo."

"And I'll miss you too." he kept smiling reassuringly. "But I am not mad if that's what you're worrying about. Sure, I guess it's... a little bit sad... but we can hang out more after you come back. I really do hope that you two will have a blast on your trip."

"Thank you, Milo." she looked really relieved, and a little bit more calm now. She then looked around, realizing something. "Ah! We forgot to bring the cake! I'm on it!"

Milo watched her running off. As she stepped inside the house, Zack entered the backyard.

"Hi, Milo."

"Hi, Zack. The party isn't ready yet, but it's good to see you early."

He gestured on the picnic blanket and they both sat down on it.

"How are you feeling, Milo?"

"Why are you asking? Did something happen?"

"I dunno." Zack shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck. "It's just... after this summer it will be a year since I moved to Danville. And... a lot of happened in my life during this... relatively short amount of time."

"Do you... want to talk about it?"

"Uhh... maybe." he glanced at him. "How is it, that I asked you how are you feeling and yet we're talking about me?" Milo shrugged and Zack snorted. "Always putting others before yourself, huh? Like a true team leader."

"Bradley said I'm not-"

"Dude, I love Bradley, but even he can admit that he was wrong about many things."

"I... can't argue with that." Milo chuckled.

"How's the Murphy's law?"

"Same old, same old... Although... it's a little bit more managable, ever since the Friendship Games. I don't know if you knew this but..." he started whispering. "I have now a group of some really good friends who are always ready to help me out, if something goes wrong."

Zack gasped.

"I had no idea!" he whispered back. "I'll keep it a secret."

A moment of silence passed before they both snickered. The snickering then turned into a laughter.

"Oh, man!" Milo giggled. "This has been a good year for me! I went from having only one best friend, to having five! Well, seven, actually. If you count Cavendish and Dakota. ...Nine, actually, if you count Mort and Chad! ...Whoa." he blinked. "I've became... popular!"

Zack started laughing again.

"You know what?" he said, still chuckling. "Moving into a new place can be really stressful. I didn't know anyone here and I was sure I'm gonna be anxious and lost all year, but now? I feel like I've made friendships that will last... a lifetime. And it's all thanks to you! It has been... an eventful year and I'm just... I'm really glad we're friends, Milo."

Milo grinned. He wanted to tell him a lot of things right now, starting with how impressed he was when Zack was ready to fight the monster by his side, without hesitation. But as he was was opening his mouth, he noticed Amanda approaching. Oh, well. They had the entire summer to talk about those things.

"Hi, Amanda!"

"Hi, Zack!" Amanda put the cake away. "Ready for another round of me trying to apply you some nail polish?"

"Can we... at least not go with the gold color again?"

"Interesting... what do you have in mind, then?"

Zack thought about it for a moment.

"...Purple?"

* * *

They were laying in bed, under a blanket. Cavendish was playing with his partner's curly hair, his eyes closed. Dakota was cuddling to his partner's chest, thinking. Cavendish felt like he found happiness at last but there was something in Dakota's head that was preventing him from feeling the same. He didn't want to talk about it but he felt like had to, he had to or he was going to lose it. He was keeping this stuff locked away inside his head for far too long.

"...I lied." he finally said.

"About what?" Cavendish asked calmly. He stopped playing with his hair and pulled back a little, to look at him.

"I..." he sighed and started again. "Before we zapped right to the final event of the Friendship Games we were talking about stuff and... I told you that I got back into that time travel business just for you. It was a lie. I really did want to do it again, just for myself, because... time travel is awesome, it's... just the best." he sighed deeply. "But I think... I feel like I was doing it wrong all my life. I know that time travel is just a job, and everybody can try to get it, like you can be a doctor or, I don't know, a firefighter. But for me specifically time travel was... kinda like a drug."

Dakota pulled away from the cuddle to lay on his back and stare at the ceiling.

"When we were fighting the monster, a month before we zapped to the last event for the Friendship Games... After I told you that I saw your every single death, you asked me why would I do that to myself. And that's a really good question. It got stuck in my head and even now I can't stop thinking about it.

Why would I do this to myself? I haven't even considered that I WAS doing something to myself. From my perspective I was just doing that to reset the timeline and save your life.

But why would I do this to MYSELF? Wouldn't it be better the other way around? What I mean is, what if doomed Dakotas were Dakotas who just saw you die only once, while the "real" me saw nothing and was enjoying his life? Now that I think about, it would really make much more sense, would it. They would all support themselves based on that one death each of them saw or whatever. But no, I've sent people on that Island, people who were living their lives only to suddenly discover that they are doomed and must go away. While I was the keeper of every single memory of your death.

Why would I do this to myself? If I really am motivated by my desire to be happy then why would I force myself from achieving that happiness?

Why was I SO excited to get into time travel again if in the past I used it mainly for going back in time after seeing you dying?

I broke the rules by going back in time, saving your life. I don't regret any of it but... Now I understand that maybe this rule was created not only to stop people from messing up the timeline, but also to protect them. Time travel can really mess with your head if you're not careful, I know that now. In the wrong hands it really corrupts you in a way you never knew possible.

I saved your life once, then twice, then a couple more times. I saw no harm in doing that. I was saving your life, I was doing a good thing. But I was also slowly losing my mind in the process.

I think it started when I had to decide on which Dakota is "real". After sending a couple of doomed Dakotas to the island, I started questioning if other things were real as well. If I saw your dead body and then came back to save your life then what if that dead Cavendish wasn't even real in the first place? It was so overwhelming but at the same time I started getting used to it, which, to be honest, was even worse.

I HAD to decide on what was real and what wasn't to not completely lose it but... there was literally no good way out of this. Because the truth was - it was all real, always. Dead Cavendishes, doomed Dakotas - all real. And I was just... unable to face that. It was just too much. So I tried to escape it, tried to tell myself they were not real, not real at all. So, of course, it all went into a completely different direction - instead of having my mind shattered immediately by facing a difficult reality, I had it destroyed slowly, piece by piece, by starting to believe that absolutely nothing was real.

But then... during the longest summer, when I was distracting the monster... something miraculous happened. You haven't seen that because you were in the limo, working. But I was having some trouble and then... another me appeared. In that one second I thought - everything is over, my life is not real, I am the doomed one. But then... He smiled, told me that he's from the future, where things get better. He helped me fight the monster. I helped myself fight the monster.

I'm still trying to piece this together. I mean, what exactly WAS that? Because... Look, I was using time travel after every single death I saw, for so long... I didn't even THINK that I could also use it to just... support myself like that! It's like... I gave myself happiness? By using time travel?! I've never done that before... have I? I've never considered that it was even an option!

But if I couldn't think of that, then... where this idea came from? Maybe it's part of my insanity at this point but... it just looked like... kinda as if the time itself was trying to help me, you know? Like the time itself got fed up with me and with what was I doing to myself and it decided to push me into the right direction because I couldn't figure this one on my own.

And you know, ever since that happened I started wondering... WHY have I never done that before?

So of course we're going back to the question - why would I do this to myself?

Am I really this broken to not realize I could just use time travel in a less self-destructing way? Or did I really start to associate unhappiness with happiness? Did I really become fond of pain as a copying mechanism? Because if that's the case... I don't want it to be." his voice started breaking. It was surprising how long it took. "I just want to be happy... But can I even be truly happy after everything that hapenned?"

He hid his face in his hands, shaking, his teeth clenched. He didn't say anything else. Cavendish, who was patiently waiting for him to get it all out, gently put his hand on his partner's shoulder.

"I don't have... any... easy answers, Vinnie. But maybe we can figure things out... together. Please, look at me. Am I real?"

Dakota wiped his tears to look at his partner. He extended his hand to cup his face, just to make sure.

"You are." he smiled through tears.

"See? That's good, that's a great start."

Cavendish thought that "the time itself" had nothing to do with helping Vinnie out when he really needed it. Because the thing was, Dakota DID use time travel to give himself happiness, in the past. Cavendish remembered very well when Vinnie stole the time vehicle just for fun, when they first met. Happiness never left his head, it just got overpowered by other things. His depression was in his head as well... And it didn't mean it was any less real. It wasn't something that should be taken lightly. If Dakota's mind really was shattered, the only thing Cavendish could do right now was to be there for his partner, to help him pick up the pieces. But getting into a relationship couldn't heal Dakota in just one day, it's not how this stuff worked. The only thing that could heal Vinnie now was... time, ironically. Time and people around him, those who loved and supported him. ...And a good therapy.

There was one more thing though... A question that Cavendish wanted to ask. He felt warm inside his chest and he knew that despite everything, it was the right thing to do. He bit his lip, hesitating, before taking a deep breath.

"Vinnie?"

"Hm?"

"This may come out as a little forward since this... well..." he gestured vaguely at their bed. "This whole situation is relatively new but... I feel like it's not, at the same time."

Dakota stared at him, so Cavendish continued.

"It doesn't feel new because we've been partners for a really long time now. What I want to propose is just a... more... intimate form of partnership.

Dakota kept staring at him, raising his eyebrows. Cavendish took another deep breath, his heart racing. Oh boy, here comes...

"Vinnie Dakota... Will you... marry me?"

"...Are you serious?" his face tensed up.

"Ah." Cavendish broke eye contact. "I know, I know, too forward. Yikes... I'm sorry. Forget I said anything."

"Of course I will!" Dakota yelled, his eyes huge.

"Oh!" Cavendish looked at him, blinking. "That's wonderfu-" he didn't finish because his partner attacked him with another kiss.

* * *

Milo, Amanda, Lydia, Zack, Melissa and Bradley were sitting on the grass in Milo's backyard, chatting, laughing and drinking soda. Amanda just finished painting Lydia's fingernails red and she tried to grab Bradley's hand next. Melissa, who already had her nails painted teal, was throwing strawberries into Zack's open mouth, or at least she was trying to - most of them were bouncing off his forehead.

"I'm gonna miss you guys." she glanced at Lydia. "You and me, we have to meet for another marathon of scary movies as soon as you're back."

"Wouldn't miss it for the world." Lydia grinned.

"Oh, I just remembered!" Zack exclaimed, looking at Bradley. "The Love Handel concert is in two weeks! Hope you didn't forget."

Amanda finally managed to grab Bradley's hand. He glanced at Zack, furrowing his eyebrows.

"You really think I would forget? You insult me."

Milo was just studying the map Lydia gave him - every place she and Amanda wanted to visit were already marked - when suddenly someone else showed up in the backyard. Milo looked up and gasped.

"Cavendish and Dakota? What are you guys doing here?" he grinned.

"Hi, Milo! Guess who just got marieeed!" Dakota grabbed his partner's hand and raised it so they could all see the ring, while also showcasing his own.

"Uh, finally..." Milo mumbled, standing up.

"Oh gosh!" Melissa and Zack exchanged glances, both of them smiling. "Congrats you guys!"

"Wait..." Amanda raised her eyebrows. "You guys weren't already married?"

Milo walked up to them to shake their hands.

"Congratulations, you two! Oh, I wish I could have been there on your wedding!"

Cavendish and Dakota glanced at each other and snorted. They were trying really hard not to laugh out loud.

"What, what is it?" Milo asked.

"Nothing, nothing..." Cavendish looked away, while Dakota chuckled into his husband's shoulder.

"Alright then, keep your secrets." Milo smirked. "I will find out whatever it is you're hiding eventually."

"Oh, I don't doubt it." Dakota grinned at him.

"So what are you guys doing here in the past?" Milo asked. "I thought you were going to go back to the future, after becoming heroes and all that."

"Well..." Cavendish sighed. "We did become heroes but... well, it's a mixed bag."

"We DID destroy time to create the longest summer." Dakota said. "They told us we can keep the medals for defeating the monster, and we can stay in the future Danville... but we also got a lifetime ban for time travel."

"But then... how..."

"We traded the possibility to live in the future for this one last jump to the past." Cavendish explained. "There is... something we really like about the past. It feels more... authentic. Going back just felt natural."

"The neighbours are so nice..." Dakota added. "Oh, yeah, that's right, be bought a house here in the suburbs! Who knew that becoming heroes would bring us that much cash?"

"I did." Cavendish answered quickly.

"We are neighbours? Oh, man, that's awesome!" Milo laughed.

"But... yes. We have a lifetime ban... No more time travel for us." Cavendish sighed.

"Or we go to jail. Forever." Dakota grinned again. He looked like he was more than okay with that deal. "Alright. We can see that you and your friends are busy. We can talk about this later. We're gonna have a lot of time for that. See ya!"

"Farewell!" Cavendish waved as Dakota grabbed his arm and ran off.

"Bye, guys!" Milo waved, watching as they're disappearing behind his house. "Man, they are so cool!"

"Are you SURE they aren't your godfathers?" Bradley asked before taking a sip of soda.

"If you really want to look at it that way." Milo rolled his eyes.

"Group hug!" Lydia yelled suddenly.

There was no escaping it. If Lydia decided it was a time for a hug, they had to hug.

"Hey, Milo?" Melissa asked. "I was just thinking... What if we messed up the time grenades? What if every summer from now on is gonna be the longest?"

"Well... Whatever happens, happens." Milo smiled. "As long as we're together, then I know that I'm gonna be happy."

* * *

The day after Cavendish proposed to him, Dakota was on the stroll, to get some fresh air. Walking the streets of future Danville, he realized that he won't be missing it too much. He was just walking by his old college when he saw a rather lanky young adult, sitting on a bench under a tree, reading a book. He looked... oddly familiar... No, this couldn't be... But... He would recognize that cowlick anywhere.

"Milo?" Dakota asked carefully, walking up closer.

Milo Murphy raised his head, surprised.

"Dakota!" he said, his voice a little bit lower than Dakota expected.

Milo threw away his book and stood up, extending his arms and grinning. He walked up to him and hugged him firmly. Dakota realized that this Milo was a little bit taller than him.

Now, Milo didn't need a father figure, since he already had a father. But after all they've been through together, Dakota started to view Milo as his son figure. And seeing his son figure suddenly all grown up like that was NOT something he was prepared for today.

"Good to see you! Wait..." Milo eyed him carefully. "You look younger than the Dakota I know. What year are you from?"

"W-What year am I from? What year are YOU from? What are you doing here?" Dakota put a hand to his forehead, wheezing.

"I'm going to college here!" he grinned. "But... please don't tell my past-self. I don't want to ruin the surprise for him."

"I won't but... h-how?!" Dakota started walking around him. He had trouble with forming a single sentence.

"I got my hands on some futuristic tech later in my life and... here I am! I still live in past Danville though. I'm just time travelling here to study every day."

Dakota stopped in front of him, to stare into his eyes, speechless. After the first shock passed, he discovered that he was very close to crying. He blinked and finally managed to say something.

"Milo, I am so... proud of you! It's been... like a week since, you know... we defeated that monster during the longest summer?"

"Yeesh! That was YEARS ago, from my perspective! ...Wait, does it mean you and Cavendish are not married yet? Oh wait!" he covered his mouth with his hand. "I hope I didn't just spoil anything for you."

"You're in luck. He proposed to me yesterday. So, no, we're not married yet. But since you mentioned it, feel invited to our wedding!" he laughed. "Why not! After we're married we're gonna move back to the past anyway so... Yeah."

"Oh, my- YES!" Milo laughed. "I will gladly show up, yes! Thank you! I... don't think my date will be able to assist me though."

"Ooh, your date? That sounds mysterious. Who are you dating? Amanda? Zack? Bradley? Melissa? ...Lydia? ...Oh, I know! It's someone I don't know yet!"

"Hmm..." he squited his eyes. "You said that after the wedding you're moving back to past Danville?"

"Yeah."

"Then I won't tell you anything." he grinned. "No spoilers for you. You have to wait and see for yourself."

"Uh, fine." Dakota chuckled. "What are you studying?"

"Time travel, of course. I took what you told me about becoming a professional very seriously. There's just... so much things I want to change and even more things that I need to watch over, to make sure that they happen in the first place! You know, after everything that happened to me I'm not just gonna... sit here, watching the world turn." he laughed. "You KNOW I'd rather spin it. Besides... the professors here say that I have... an incredible talent. It's like I... know how to prevent every potential disaster from happening... But I can't take all the credit though." he looked at him and smiled sheepisly. "Truth be told, I had a great teacher."

He was so proud of this kid. Don't cry. Don't cry...

"Aww..." Milo pulled out a bag of tissues and handed it to him. "There's no need for tears, old friend. Nothing sad is happening."

Dakota blew his nose. He then took a deep breath.

"Milo... can I ask you something?" he said, his voice a bit shaky.

"Sure!"

"...Am I happy in the future?"

Milo thought about it for a moment.

"I don't... actually know. Your future-self always seemed happy to me, but I've never actually asked. Sorry..." he thought about it more. "I can... I can tell you about some stuff that will happen, to make you feel better."

"But wouldn't that create some kind of paradox?"

"Maybe... but I don't care. You look like you really need it right now."

"Okay, well..." a small smile appeared on his face after he sniffed. "Let's see what you've got."

"Let me think of something first, those things happened years ago..." Milo tapped his chin with his finger. "Oh, I know! I remember when you and Cavendish were sitting under a tree during summer. You were sipping lemonade and observing me, Melissa and Zack playing freesbee. At some point Murphy's law caused the freesbee to hit the tree and one of the branches almost fell right on you, but Cavendish pulled you closer so you wouldn't get hurt. The branch wasn't very big so probably nothing serious would've happened but he protected you anyway."

"Oh, this... this is good." Dakota sat down on the bench, his eyes big. Milo joined him. "Tell me more."

"Let's see... Oh! Melissa and Zack went to the beach one day! They told me how they met you two there. You were building a sandcastle and, since Melissa loves competition, she wanted to build a better one. It turned into small contest."

"Who won?"

"Melissa told me she did but Zack was shaking his head behind her back, so..." he laughed. "I don't know! ...Oh, right! There was also the Love Handel concert, a big one! Sadly, I missed it, but Bradley and Zack told me that they saw you guys in the crowd, so at least you guys got to enjoy it. Hm, what else... On my fourteen birthday I asked you guys if you could teach me more about time travel. Cavendish taught me everything he knew about theory and the rules and you were telling me all about your adventures and improvisation."

"Did I also tell you about the dangers of time travel? Because that stuff is important too."

"Yes, on my eighteen birthday, I will get to that. Anyway, you and Cavendish were great teachers, like, as soon as I asked if you could teach me, you acted like you knew... Oh wait, you DID know! You knew because I'm telling you about this right now, duh!" he laughed. "Hm... Oh, I remember when my and all my friends went out to this restaurant, on the roud outside of Danville... and it was very late when we were about to go back home... and then of course Murphy's law happened and we had no way to go back, unless we walked. So I called you and you and Cavendish arrived in your van (because you also bought a van in the future). It was very late and most of us fell asleep on the way back... all except me and Cavendish who was driving. I saw that he was trying to avoid the holes in the road so you would sleep fine. On my sixteen birthday Amanda bake me a cake, a really, really big one! I still don't know how she managed to do it, it was the most impressive. I remember you saying that you really liked how it tasted. Oh, I also remember that me and Melissa wanted to visit the zoo so I called you to see if you'd like to come with us..."

Dakota's smile was getting bigger and bigger as Milo kept going. Everything he was saying was just... so wonderful. There was just so many moments in this future, so many joyful moments... He liked how it sounded. He liked that a lot...

"...then Lydia shaved their hair and Zack was right, they really did look rad like this. It was right before Bradley had that presentation about the stars- ah, right, I forgot to mention, Bradley got really into all that space stuff during high school. It's because he wants to figure out a way to get rid of the dome around our galaxy, in the future. Anyway, you and Cavendish showed up because the presentation took place in the observatory and, you know. You wanted to look at the stars. But yeah, back to Lydia, since they aim for Broadway..."

Dakota kept absorbing every word. This was... better then he could ever imagined. He didn't even need to know more, he already knew everything he wanted to know. There was a warm, fuzzy feeling inside his chest. The contentment was filling his heart, while the sunshine was flooding his soul. It was overwhelming... But so good... He was...

He was happy.

"...and so Melissa decided to interview you and what she wrote kinda went viral... Oh, and this, this happened like yesterday, so I don't know all the details yet but Bradley called me, saying he discovered a new solar system and if everything goes according to plan, he will get to name it. He decided to call it 'Melissa's Kingdom' but the reason he called me was to make sure I keep safe distance so the Murphy's law can't ruin it for him." he chuckled. "Good, old Bradley..."

He then glanced at his wrist watch.

"Oh no! I gotta run or else I'm gonna be late for the class! It would be so embarassing, especially for the aspiring time traveler! I'm sorry, Dakota... Uh... See you at your wedding!"

"Milo, wait." Dakota put a hand on his shoulder. "I just wanted to say that... It will be an honor to go back to the past and... watch you grow up."

"It... will be a blast." he smiled sincerely.

He then turned away and started running.

"Oh, Milo, one last thing!" Dakota called out. Milo stopped and turned around."I've become a time traveler in order to prevent the Mississippi purchase. Is there something specific you would like to change in the past too?"

"Oh, you wouldn't know. After all..." a smile decorated his face. "It probably already happened."

Dakota watched as Milo ran off, stopped in the door frame to wave to him one last time, then disappeared inside the building. Dakota has never felt more proud and impressed at the same time. There just wasn't any doubt about it - Milo Murphy was going to become the greatest time traveler of all time.

It was his world. And they were all just living in it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I have a couple more things to say. You can choose to ignore the text below because the story is now over.
> 
> You're still here? Alright.
> 
> As you probably noticed, Dakavendish became the only "canon" pairing at the end of this story. That's right, Milanda and Bradlissa ain't endgame here. This is because of two things;  
> 1\. I didn't want the romance to overshadow the true point of this story - that the kids are best friends with each other and it's what matters the most.  
> 2\. I wanted this fic to be a satisfying conclusion for as many people as it was possible. Everyone has different ships and they're all valid - Zalissa, Milack, Bradilo, Milolissa and so on. If you shipped Milanda and Bradlissa - they're canon. If you didn't - they're not.
> 
> Although I feel like I still have to adress the elephant in the room - I did "break up" Zalissa but that's because personally I don't think the show itself made a good case for them - there was a lot of punching and being uncomfortable around each other whenever someone assumed they're dating. I think the ending of season 2 really forced them together way too soon without any major character development, so... yeah. I was not satisfied with that.
> 
> Bradlissa is my personal OTP while Zalissa isn't exactly my cup of tea, but if you choose to believe that Melissa and Zack's friendship continued to grow after the Truth Booth, and they ended up together in the future - that's perfectly fine by me.
> 
> But of course the ships aren't the most important part of this story. There is a lot of going on underneath the surface and I can't discuss everything, but I still need to adress at least one more thing.
> 
> When I came up with the monster it was less about creating a character and more about what the monster actually represents, what the main characters are fighting against. I tried to make it as present as possible without being obvious or without saying it directly: homophobia, abuse, predatory, slavery, depression, and more, the monster is pretty much everything we have to actively fight against, because we have no other choice.
> 
> I think that at the end of the day the monster works best as Dakota's personal demons. In chapter 7 Dakota and Cavendish leave the limo behind, thinking they won't need it anymore, now that they have the pocket time machine. After the monster proves them wrong by consuming Dakota's head and breaking his spine, Dakota spends WEEKS in the limo because he is afraid to - well - come out. It is only after Dakota and Cavendish talk about their feelings, and after the monster invades their safe space by breaking the windshield, that Dakota finally faces the monster again and tells him that he's done running away. And after defeating the monster, Dakota and Cavendish get married. So, yeah.
> 
> At its core, it's an optimistic story about the group of people who use the power of friendship to trap the monster, and everything it represents, in the past, so it could never affect their future.
> 
> For more thoughts, visit this thread: https://twitter.com/daWhiteBAG/status/1139889435955384326
> 
> Thank you for reading.


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